Misadventures in Eggman Land
by Sonic Rose
Summary: Shadow has problems raising his youngest child, who's taken after him in far too many aspects. Meanwhile, Eggman's decided to try again at cloning. Maybe Junior will be better behaved than Nega... -Please read Flirting Shadows on up. It'll help.
1. Home is?

The Space Colony Ark was back in operations thanks to an investment by young Chris Thorndyke, who had purchased the station several years ago. It now hosted a full staff of scientists and researchers, picking up on whatever government projects it had that were now declassified. The Eclipse Cannon was a missing feature from the refurbished space station, but that was a minor consideration. Its residential sections, however, were open to the public for a price, except for one small cluster of rooms reserved for close friends...and one particular hedgehog who had lived there once long ago.

Without daylight, Shadow's insomnia didn't seem as large an issue as it did on Earth. The bed he and Sara lay on had a solid gray polymer for a base, though its corners were well rounded and smooth. While the mattress seemed fairly thin, the material had to be some sort of memory foam that gave them more than enough support. He lightly nuzzled against his mate's ears, the girl sleeping curled up next to him contentedly.

He would've liked to have spent more time observing her sleep habits, but a small moving form was trying to pull herself up onto the bed. Shadow reached over Sara and offered an arm to the child, who held on fast. "Up you go..." he said softly and hoisted her onto the bed.

The hedgehog child was almost a carbon copy of Shadow, having his red marks, black body, and white fluffy chest. Even her eyes were the same blood red. Where they differed was gender and the fact that the girl had a white plume of fur on her forehead where her mother had brown bangs. "I'm hungry," she said simply and shook Sara's shoulder.

The sky blue and brown hedgehog opened her deep brown eyes, her blurred vision quickly clearing to reveal her youngest daughter. She smiled a bit. "Morning already?"

"Hardly. It's almost 6 PM," Shadow replied idly.

"W-what?!" Sara suddenly sat bolt upright, nearly knocking Ayame off the bed and forcing Shadow to adjust the arm he had around her moments ago. "No wonder she's hungry! Oh baby, I didn't realize…."

"I took her to breakfast while you were asleep," Shadow commented idly. "...And lunch."

Sara gave him a doubtful look, but when he sat next to her, the bed hardly shifted at all. Combining the bed's high tech mattress with Shadow's slippery nature made two trips out of bed suddenly seem plausible. "Oh…okay." She sighed. "Why did you let me sleep like that?"

"You looked peaceful." Shadow set Ayame on the floor, and the child quickly placed her arms around his right leg. He lightly patted her head and ruffled her white bangs. They were the same cotton texture as her chest fur, another difference from the silky bangs her mother had. Shadow sighed a bit at that; he really would have liked his genes to be less dominant. Their last, it seemed, would be most like him.

"Okay. I'll buy that." Sara smoothed her own quills, then ran her fingers through Ayame's quills, smoothing them down. She separated her small hands from around Shadow's leg and picked her up. "I love you, sweety."

"Now you see why I have odd sleeping hours?" Shadow said as he stretched a bit, ready to face the day--or evening. He'd been away from his sleeping beauty quite a bit that day, and not just for Ayame's stomach.

The three year old had demonstrated her Chaos abilities at the tender age of one by using Chaos Control to seek out her milk source, landing her on their bed on more than one occasion. After that, he'd had a limiter made for her small wrist, but it wasn't enough. As she entered those "terrible twos," she was using it to teleport herself into a number of dangerous spots, including the roof top, up trees, and the top of one of the power lines not long ago... A second limiter was made, but the fact was, she _knew_ she was doing it.

For that reason, Shadow had seen fit to begin training her in her powers, just so she would be able to control them and avoid accidents. The dangerous side of Chaos Control was definitely the weapons side of things, Chaos Wind, Chaos Spears, however it manifested itself, and Ayame had also shown a little bit of a temper when she "accidentally" blew up the DVD player one night because she wanted to watch something else. He'd managed to convince Sara it had to be replaced for other reasons, since she'd been out with Amy that evening. Still, it was just another reason to teach her better...

The Ark was still ahead of the rest of the world where it came to Chaos Emerald studies and had facilities designed to block or dampen Chaos energies. It was an ideal setting for Shadow to teach Ayame without endangering another DVD player, or worse, Sara's computer. High One forbid he have to talk his way out of that one _again_. If he did his job right, he felt he could keep Sara from ever having to know the full extent of their little girl's powers. Training her had occupied a good chunk of the afternoon, and he only hoped she wouldn't probe him about it too much once she did find out they were "play fighting." '_Girl is going to be the death of me...'_ he thought as he turned his attention back on his mate.

"Dinner for you two, breakfast for me." Sara shrugged. She headed for the door with Ayame resting on her right hip. "I think I'd like pancakes..."

* * *

In the balmy Hawaiian climate, a new amusement park had opened recently: Eggman Land. The doctor had truly given up on World Domination, so he now sought to dominate the theme park industry. With his genius, and his few robot workers, the whole place was assembled and open and ready for business in months rather than years. Despite its name, Eggman had also seen fit to capitalize on his tenuous relationship, more adequately called a rivalry, with Sonic the hedgehog.

It was hard for the scientist to just step aside out of the light, but now that he was getting on in years, he had no choice but to slow down. In his mind, he'd thought of ways to use his theme park to brainwash the masses, but never implemented said plans. He found that his bumbling robots such as Decoe and Bocoe were rather entertaining to the kids, and something happened being around such happiness day in and day out.

At first it sickened and repulsed him that a man of his criteria should be reduced to this. It also sickened him because he hated kids. _Cloning was so much easier..._ But the more the money rolled in and his position became respected rather than feared, he wondered what would happen to it all after he was gone. By _it,_ he largely meant the robots to which he had sentimental attachment, though he would never admit it.

To the untrained eye, even a robotic one, Eggman hadn't changed a bit. He still kept largely to himself, appeared to despise the masses, and even treated his machines abusively. Yet, there was a certain level of attention he gave each new machine that he previously hadn't given. The defanged version of Metal Sonic he set loose in the park was a crowd pleaser, but somehow the doctor seemed a little sad when he looked his way.

Eggman holed himself up in his central laboratory, which was the heart of Eggman Amusements. He often did this for days on end, only allowing his robots to come and serve him, then leave him just as quickly. He had an idea he wished to implement, but still hadn't decided on it fully since his last failure.

"What's he doing?" Bocoe, a pudgy silver robot, inquired nervously of Decoe, a taller gold robot, as the two spied on their master.

"Sitting there," he replied drolly.

"I know that!" Bocoe managed a slightly exasperated tone. "But what is he _doing_ sitting there?"

"Looks like he's watching something on the monitor," Bokkun said, flying in and landing on Bocoe's head in a sitting position. The small blackish robot had a round face, wide eyes, and blue tongue. He was often Eggman's messenger, and he loved to deliver bombs. Lately he flew around the park setting off fireworks or tossing poppers at the children, which did seem to delight him more or less. He loved surprises.

"We know that..." Decoe strained, "but what is Master interested in? Is he making another robot?"

"Oh that could be bad! What if he replaces us?" Bocoe fretted.

"W-ww-what!?" Bokkun practically jumped and flew around the two robots in a dizzying way. "No he ca-ACK!"

Decoe grabbed the small robot and covered his mouth. "Shh! We do not wish to anger the master!"

"Hey!" Bocoe shot up, the two robots then glaring at him as Eggman shifted in his chair. "Sorry...umm...well, Bokkun can fly so...maybe he could...see what the master's up to?"

That actually sounded like a good idea. After a little bit of pointless squabbling, the small robot flew over Eggman and took a look at the monitor. Instead of plans for a new robot, the screen displayed a double helix of DNA. But whose? And why?

"Hello...is this Biotech Labs?" Eggman asked as he reached someone on the phone. "Yes...I need to speak with Dr. Ovi."

* * *

Something strange had happened to Shadow, being back on the Ark. It was like, whatever had bound his heart and weighed him down on Earth had suddenly loosed. Sara found him to be more relaxed, walking the long, pristine corridors and gazing at the stars out the window. She even thought she saw him smile a few times.

Their first steps on the Ark several days ago were interesting...Shadow had just told her to close her eyes, and after inducing Chaos Control, there they were. He didn't let her open her eyes until he took her to an open picture-window grand enough for his tastes. That meant he'd guided her with one arm around her, and holding hands with little Ayame on the other side. He must have looked strange doing that! But it was well worth it; the view was just breathtaking. Ayame found the automatic doors opening far more entertaining than the star gazing, which both Sara and Shadow laughed at. It was just...the room they stayed in.

Of course, it had been Maria's. Shadow's entire demeanor changed when he walked into that room; Sara saw it firsthand. The way his breathing would slow, the distance that would grow in his eyes, the tilt of his ears, the way he walked. His movements became deliberate and respectful, as if completely conscious of what he was doing. '_He's thinking of her,'_ Sara thought.

There wasn't much to get into in Maria's room. It came with a closet, a window, a polymer bed, some shelving, a dresser, and a rug with some emblem on it, which was probably the logo for the Ark. Still, Ayame found the one fragile item in the room, a glass sphere, which Shadow quickly pulled out of her hands.

"Waaaaaaa!" Ayame had cried, quickly drawing Sara's attention.

"You shouldn't play with that!" Shadow scolded with a growl.

Sara knelt by their little one and drew her into her arms, then glanced over at Shadow. "What is that?"

Shadow snorted and remained quiet as he returned the sphere to a pedestal made for it. There was some movement in the sphere. "It's an ecosphere," he said simply. Tiny shrimp were swimming around in it, and there was a piece of coral inside. There was more to it than that, but that was about all they could see. "It's a self-maintaining ecosystem locked in a glass orb." He paused. "It's fragile."

"Did it belong to Maria?" Sara asked, standing and glancing at the orb on the mantle.

"She had one; I don't know if this was it." Shadow shrugged, suddenly indifferent.

One change to Maria's quarters was a door joining it to another room that was slightly smaller, which would be where Ayame slept. It was when the couple had settled for their first night in Maria's room that things felt strange. Just for starters, Shadow seemed a little out of it as he climbed into bed.

"Not used to having a place to sleep here?" Sara asked softly as she climbed in next to him.

"Well, I had a place...it wasn't this nice though," he'd replied.

"Project Shadow?" Sara found the memory foam a strange new experience. It sort of sucked you in, like an old worn couch, but was somehow firm and supportive.

Shadow grimaced a little bit; they hardly ever talked about him as a test subject, but that was...part of his purpose. "Yeah. I had a nice fish bowl with a view." He rolled his eyes and then lay back on the bed, soon finding Sara half laid on him, brushing her fingers through his chest fur.

When their eyes locked, Sara felt suddenly shy and put her head down on his chest, an ear offered toward him. "Umm..."

"Sorry..." Shadow sighed a bit, though he wrapped his arms around her and impressed his scent on the back of her ear with his tongue.

"It's because it's _her_ room, isn't it?" She slipped her arms around him in a hug, though she knew there wouldn't be more than cuddling at best tonight. The heavy sigh that left her love was answer enough. "It's okay."

"...Sorry," he apologized again and closed his eyes.

Sara lifted herself up a bit and let her lips press softly against his. She held the tender kiss as long as he would allow before slipping back to her cottony pillow. "I love you."

The edges of the dark hedgehog's lips curled up slightly as he held her. He felt a little guilty about not being able to indulge her tonight, but at least she understood. He stroked his fingers through her quills lightly, recalling nights when a young human girl had done the same to him. '_Maria….'_


	2. A Little Surprising

Droplets of hot water slammed forcefully against sky blue quills and fur, then ran down the ends in fluctuating rivers only to fall to the porcelain flooring and down the pipework of the Ark to be run through its water filtering system and begin the cycle anew. The female hedgehog let the water continue to pummel her, feeling immense relief as tense muscles relaxed. It had been a long day, and this was her favorite method of relaxing, as she slid down to a kneeling position on the cold floor. She'd already worked the tea tree shampoo into her quills and washed away the residue long ago. She was just soaking, letting the water carry her anxieties down the drain along with the dirt and grime.

It had been a long day. Ayame had been trying to get into areas she shouldn't be in alone. More often than not, she was giving her mother the slip, and Sara was not amused. If there had been a window in the bathroom, she would have looked at the blue jewel in the heavens and wished they were back on Earth. They'd been on the Ark sporadically over the last few months, but their stays were getting longer and longer, and it just made her miss home all the more. While Shadow seemed to know his way around the curving corridors and repetitive rooms, Sara could hardly tell left from right on the sprawling space station. She'd also developed a streak of pride that prevented her from asking directions most of the time, not that her short-term memory would let her remember said directions without a map. She was good at reading maps, at least. Between trying to track down Ayame and Shadow, she'd spent the whole day wandering one end of the colony to the other, and it was tiring.

"Are you going to be in there all day?" Shadow's voice finally broke through the sliding door to the private bathroom.

"Nnnn..." Sara breathed in deeply, trying to enjoy what was likely her last few minutes in the watery refuge. "Would you mind?" she called back after a moment. The water was starting to cool down and her quills flared at the sudden shift to chilly water. "S-Shadow!! Stop messing with the temperature!" the hedgehog squeaked and quickly turned off the water.

The door to the bathroom slid open and Shadow stepped in quietly. He took no mind of her privacy and slid the foggy glass divider aside, looking down on his mate disapprovingly. He looked over her soaked and slightly shivering form, the drops of water gently rolling off her quills while it clung to her softer fur like that on her shoulders. His nose detected a minty scent from the tea tree shampoo, but very little of his personal scent. If he hated anything about her bathing habits, it was having to reaffirm his mark on her constantly. As his one act of kindness, he extended a hand to her.

She avoided his gaze and made a quick flick of her head, sending a spray of water in all directions. Of course, Shadow hadn't flinched, and it was normal for her to shake off some of the water. It was just another aspect of the cat and mouse relationship they shared, which had become accepted, if not approved of. With a deep and resigned sigh, she accepted his hand after her own moved slothfully to his. "I just got in..."

"...Over an hour ago." He hoisted her to her feet quicker than she would have liked, and let her soaking body fall against Shadow. "Come on."

Sara slipped her arms around Shadow, suddenly feeling dizzy. "Okay...just a second..."

This was usually the part where one of them retrieved a towel and headed back to their room. That didn't happen. Instead of weakening her grip, Sara held on more fiercely than before. Shadow's mind quickly assessed her response and he ungloved a hand, resting it to her forehead. "You're hot."

"Why thank you..." Sara chuckled, though it was half hearted.

Shadow's frown deepened. "How long have you been feeling like this?"

Sara loosened her grip on the dark hedgehog and forced herself upright. She peered past him at the door, where their nearly four year old child was peering at them wide eyed. "Like what?" She said in a slightly scolding tone. "I'm fine. If anything, the AC needs to be brought down a bit. It's freezing in here!" she said honestly, mocking a shiver. The next thing she knew, she was scooped up in his arms and speeding off to the infirmary without so much as a towel covering her.

* * *

"Ahh...Dr. Ovi." Eggman smiled genially, offering a hand to a gaunt scientist clad in blue and white with madly arranged white hair and reflective black aviator glasses.

The man took it and nodded. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but I don't exactly know if that's the case, Doctor Eggman." He adjusted his glasses before shaking his hand.

"Hnnn... So how many years has it been?" Eggman inquired as they strolled through a hall lined with many tubular capsules containing various nasty looking liquids, some with weird dark shapes floating in them.

Dr. Ovi seemed to consider this as his long legs carried him toward his office. "Not since Project Nega." At his heels was a small, rodent-like animal that followed him like a dog. It had long, pointed ears with black tips, a kinky tail, and a creamy coat. Its eyes were black pools, and its hind legs were far longer than its forepaws. Biotech, aside cloning experiments, was also commissioned to investigate the viability of producing or reproducing certain fictional creatures and assessing whether they would be good at certain jobs or not. This particular specimen from the Pokémon project had proved it could recharge batteries and bite people who didn't like it or its master. It didn't like Eggman, and he knew well enough to keep his hand away from the raidentia.

"Ahh, true." Eggman nodded, stroking his whitened mustache. "So how is Project ahh..."

"Offspring?" Ovi suggested. "It's coming. The sample's already advanced to about nine months."

Eggman frowned a bit, "That's all?" He glanced at the rodent, who now climbed up the doctor's leg, back, and onto his left shoulder, where he gave a warning glare at the fat man with his beady little eyes. The way his tail bristled and sparks flew between his and Ovi's hair, it was no wonder it looked so unkempt.

"If you would like me to put a rush on this creation of your blood, then I suppose I can have him advanced to, oh, your age in a matter of months."

The doctor snorted. "No, no, we won't be going that far this time," Eggman replied.

Ovi arched a white brow and sniffed a bit, taking a seat behind his desk and keying something on his work terminal. He motioned for Eggman to sit down across from him. "Oh? I was under the impression you wanted..."

Eggman sat down onto the rolling chair and leaned back, giving an overall thoughtful impression as he stroked his mustache just under his nose. "What I want is an heir."

Ovi nodded and looked over the data projected on the screen, his mind partly elsewhere. He had a number of projects to do, not just Eggman's. It was a pity the Pikachu Project fell through, and they were a little like furry electric eels when it came to care and feeding, so they couldn't even be passed off as adequate pets without having their energy sacs removed. He idly stroked the creature on his shoulder lightly. "Most people have _kids_ the traditional way, you understand." And then there was the stuff the MRT had recently sent them.

"I'm a bit past my prime, I do believe," Eggman admitted sadly. "I've had too many important things to attend, and unfortunately, relationships were not on my priority list. Even if they were, it's quite hard to find a woman who can appreciate genius, wouldn't you say?"

Ovi nodded absently and looked back at his screen. "Well, we did play a bit with the sample you gave us, since you did specify this was not to be an exact copy," he responded and lifted a cup of coffee from on top of the desk. It was cold; pity. He set it down and the rodent followed down the length of his arm and then began sniffing at the acrid drink.

"What did you do?" Eggman inquired. The screen was spun around to face him.

"Oh, the usual genetic cleanup, mostly revolving around correcting certain genes. The boy...ahh, you will have to specify how old you want him and what training programs he is to receive, as well as suggested nutrient feeds. But anyway," Ovi continued with a bit of a smile, "if we've done our job, he should have a higher metabolism than you as well as a ah...longer lasting," he added tentatively.

Eggman's brow creased. The implications were that the kid would be skinny and not go bald, but it still left a sour taste in his mind, thinking of his own shortcomings. "As far as intelligence?"

"Oh well, if you would allow us a brain scan, we can see about implanting some key memories of your own as we did with Nega. There is no reason to believe he will be unintelligent or incapable of genius." Ovi shrugged. The mouse-like creature hopped off his desk and over to a power line, biting into it. The jolt hardly impressed the creature or Dr. Ovi; he was used to this activity, as the power line was available to it for a reason. "If we were cloning you in your entirety, we could basically copy you to a tee. However, if you're interested in actually _raising_ this one more or less, I cannot guarantee the results you want outside physical parameters."

Eggman nodded and gave a mild grunt at that. "I suppose you're right. Well then, let's look over the project and set the details," the aging scientist suggested, and there was a mutual nod between them.

* * *

Though the space colony did have its share of Mobians, the place was predominantly populated with humans. So it was little surprise that the leading doctor at the Ark's infirmary was a human. She was a prudent, no-nonsense woman with brunette hair, thin glasses, and a temper to match. Her hair was drawn up in a bun, and her face had a sharp, angled look to it. While she did have experience with Mobian patients, as all who wished to become doctors did these days, she was of the mentality that they should be seen by a vet instead.

Thus, Dr. Strauf looked down on Shadow and the sopping wet hedgehog with disdain. "I'm sorry, did K-9 Cuts close early?" she asked snidely.

Shadow's eyes glinted at her dangerously, though she seemed not to care. "She's sick. Do something."

Dr. Strauf rolled her eyes and motioned to a medical bed, which he lay her on. "Oh for heaven's sake…." she grumbled and retrieved a towel from one of the cabinets and flung it at the dark hedgehog. Shadow glared at her for a moment, but in a more caring fashion, he toweled off his love. "I'll need more information, symptoms for example," she said, finally getting down to business. Mobians disgusted her; if she liked them at all, she would have liked them dissected or stuffed rather than living and breathing.

"She has a fever, I think she was dizzy..." He looked to Sara for confirmation and she nodded.

"How long has that been going on?" She caught sight of a small black and red hedgehog toddling into the room. Ayame had followed Shadow and was examining the room visually from the doorway. _'Uhg, another one."_

"...Couple days," Sara spoke up at last. Shadow gave her a harsh look and she turned away from him. "Vertigo. I just kind of chalked it up to being here...I...really don't think I was made for space."

"Anything else?" the doctor asked, writing in a medical chart.

"Slight nausea…." Sara confessed. Her missed meals now made sense to Shadow, who was growing angrier at her for not saying anything. "...Headache."

"Tried anything for it?" she said dispassionately.

"No." Sara winced at the burning look Shadow was giving her.

"So what do you think?" Shadow asked Dr. Strauf, though she looked anywhere but _at_ the hedgehog in question.

"Could be a number of things. It could be dietary, not enough sleep, bacterial, viral, glandular, perhaps _parasitic_..." she rattled off a list, straining the last one. '_See how the flea-bag responds to that,'_ she thought with a twisted grin, finally looking at the patient.

Shadow's muzzle arched into a full sneer, his teeth showing menacingly, particularly the pointed canines. "You're not helping..." he hissed.

"I'll run some tests," she assured and grabbed a syringe with which to draw blood. She would have loved to draw more than was healthy but for the fact that there were laws protecting the wretched creatures. "Until I know what I'm dealing with, all I can suggest is pain killers for the headache and perhaps an antibiotic for potential disease." Sara was a good patient, even if she did have a dangerous habit of not speaking up when she was in pain of one kind or another, and took the needle very well. "You're the ones who break normal quarantine procedures anyway. Probably brought some filthy disease from that mud ball you call home."

Shadow snarled at the woman contemptuously, "We didn't bring it...I don't get sick."

She gave a sidelong glance at the still rather wet rat he called a mate, then back at him. "Apparently the same can't be said of your sex partner." Shadow's quills flared dangerously. "We can't _all_ be the u_ltimate life form._"

"Sha--" Sara started and sat up as a well aimed fist suddenly knocked against the doctor's face. _'Oh no….'_

"Yay Papa!" Ayame smiled from where she'd been standing.

"Ayame, don't encourage...hi...ahh..." Bolting upright with a case of vertigo was not a good idea, and she was quickly back down on the bed as a barrage of insults and threats issued from the human. The terms assault, dangerous, and restraint all caught her ears miserably. She'd need another _relaxing_ shower after this...


	3. Finding your Place

The Ark saw a fairly regular stream of visitors, but typically they arrived on a fairly fixed schedule, with a single, full shuttle arriving once a week at most and once every two months at the least. However, the shuttle arriving today was a privately owned one belonging to the Thorndykes. Chris and Helen were two of the passengers on it too, but they weren't the ones most anticipated by the sky blue hedgehog waiting for them when they arrived in the hangar.

Sara was attempting to ignore a headache and a slight moving sensation even though she knew her feet were firmly on the ground. She promised herself an aspirin when she got back to her quarters, as much for her own sake as Shadow's. She really wanted to enjoy this day, and a headache was the last thing she needed.

It had been a couple months since Shadow had swept her off to the infirmary, and while the fever had long since passed, the vertigo had not. It didn't usually last very long, but it struck suddenly and inconveniently when it happened. As for finding a reason, Dr. Strauf offered little in the way of suggestions on that, and her tests yielded "inconclusive results." Of course, after being struck by her mate, Sara was fairly sure she didn't have her best interests at heart. Chris Thorndyke had seen to it a Mobian doctor would be flown to the Ark for her care, and since she wasn't the only Mobian complaining about Dr. Strauf, it wasn't an unreasonable request.

Finally, the shuttle door opened and several Mobians walked down the ramp. "Hey, Cuz!" Sonic waved, striding down it with a fair spring in his step. Sara smiled at him and gave him a hug when he approached her. Normally the two would have met halfway, but Sara didn't quite trust her feet.

Amy was only a few steps behind her love and also smiled Sara's way. "Hi, Sara!"

"Hey, guys, glad you guys could make it," Sara replied with a polite smile. She looked back at the ramp where her main interest was stepping down now--two three year old hedgehogs, not much younger than her daughter Ayame. The first one to make its way down the steps was gray with markings like Shadow's, only they were orange, and the one beside him was the same with sky blue markings. "Aww!" Sara knelt down and the kids ran into her arms, quite a bit faster than Ayame when she actually _wanted_ to come. "How are you two scamps? Not giving my Maria any trouble, are you?" She nuzzled the tops of their heads affectionately, then looked up at their parents.

An orange male hedgehog with yellow eyes had his arm around a female that looked very much like a darkened version of Sara. She had midnight blue fur and dark reddish-brown bangs and markings that were more like her mother's, save for stripes on her arms and legs, though they were the same reddish brown. As for clothes, the male had a yellow and green jacket while the female had a more subdued blue and white dress.

"Hello, Mom," the young lady said after a moment, smiling pleasantly at her mother and children.

"Hello, darling." Sara smiled proudly, though she took a moment to get to her feet, hiding the dizzy sensation that followed her faster movements. Sonic would've hated this, since he was all about speed. "How've you two been?"

"Good, good!" the dark furred girl replied enthusiastically. "How's my little sister?"

"Ahh..." Sara paused a moment in thought. "Well, Shadow's gone to get her."

"That explains it," the orange one said, smiling down at his son, who threw his little arms around his left leg. He sheepishly looked away from his mate. "Well, I get the feeling your father still doesn't like me very much, Maria."

"Chase...!" Maria pouted a bit, but that was cut off by a tug at her dress. She then picked up her little girl and balanced her on her hip.

"Yeah, he is a sourpuss," Sonic commented idly. "So where we stayin'?"

Behind him, Chris Thorndyke laughed, "I can show you guys around." He assured, "I think Sara would probably like to catch up with her kids and grandkids, right?"

"I'd like that," the sky blue hedgehog replied; she looked at the door to the space shuttle with a small frown. "Too bad Ash couldn't make it." She missed her son too. Actually, she missed Earth...and Mobius. Mobius was where Ash was currently living, where Maria lived most of the time when Chase wasn't still competing in Gear tournaments. She had a very reminiscent look in her eyes thinking about sunshine and warm grass and... "I kind of miss Earth."

"Told Shadow about that?" Maria inquired.

Sara sighed a bit. "I really hate to. Shadow likes it here, and...well...he seems at peace up here."

That was partly true. Shadow had seemed at peace on the Ark, but not completely. Most of that had stemmed from the animosity fired at him and Sara by Dr. Strauf; the other part was Ayame. Shadow was seething inside because he knew a side of their little girl that Sara had little to no clue about. He'd gone to lengths to hide her Chaos abilities or shrug them off in some way, though the teleporting aspect was well known. Her temper and tendency to run away...that was something he knew far more intimately than his mate.

Right now was one of those times Ayame had run off and Sara actually knew about it. She couldn't have had better timing if she'd tried. He wanted to be there when Maria arrived on the Ark, and he was still a bit concerned about Sara's condition. He hated being torn in two directions at once, but he headed at a quick pace down the Ark's halls looking for his little girl. _'When I find her...'_

* * *

There were certain places on the Ark Ayame had a real fondness for, and the arboretum and wildlife vivarium were her favorites. The vivarium was mainly for the researchers but was often open to the public during business hours. The arboretum, on the other hand, was maintained more like a recreational park, complete with tennis court and a couple of ornate fountains, as well as benches set around the place. Butterflies and very select organisms were allowed to live there and were constantly monitored for a number of reasons. Ayame liked the puff of air as you entered or left the enormous domed enclosure, to ensure the insects stayed where they were supposed to.

Of course, she was disappointed when she came to a halt at its door and it hadn't slid open as she expected. She tugged at the door's indented handle, but it wouldn't budge. She was starting to get upset about it and thinking of how she could get in. She couldn't teleport inside since she didn't have a good idea of where she'd end up, but she might be able to force the door open with a little Chaos...

Her eyes then settled on the gold band around her wrist, and she hated it. She didn't like wearing the limiters, and Shadow had recently given her new ones...and the worst part was that they locked. Of course, her papa had the key, but he said they could only come off for training. It was restricting her, she knew that, but what was she supposed to do about it? She began fidgeting with the bands, hoping to rid herself of the gold accessories, to no avail.

"Are you lost?" one of the Ark's scientists asked the young black and red hedgehog. She looked up at the short, dark-skinned human and shook her head, then she looked at the door apprehensively. "Can I help you, little lady?" he said in a friendly tone.

"I want to go inside..." Ayame pouted. A thought occurred to her then, and she gave him a piteous look. "I left my doll in there..."

"Hmm...but it's closed today, Miss...?" he returned thoughtfully to the young Mobian.

"Ayame," she pouted and did her best to look pathetic and helpless, which she was far from.

No scientist on the Ark was uninformed about Shadow and his family, though this was his first meeting with the child. "Morgan. Nate Morgan." He continued to peer at her with a thoughtful smile and then the door. "Lost a doll, huh?"

"Yes, Mister! Please? I just want my doll...I'll be quick..." she said, tapping a toe on the metal flooring.

"Well..." He frowned a little bit and then glanced at the girl. "I need to get something from the vivarium, so I have to pass through here anyway..." He removed a badge from his lab coat and swiped it down the door locking mechanism. The light flashed green and the door opened. Ayame could hardly contain herself. "I won't be more than five minutes, child."

"Okay. Thank you, Mister!" Ayame beamed, barely remembering her manners before she bolted inside. It was then fairly obvious to her _why_ the place had been shut down. "Oh wow..."

* * *

It was quite a day in Eggman Land Amusements. After months of hard work, Eggman Jr. was brought home from Biotech Labs. Eggman felt a swelling sense of pride as he had examined the six year old boy. The Eggman clone had been advanced in age as per request and subliminally trained to match his parent's genius. Doing it this way avoided a lot of diaper changing and the awkward toilet training stage.

Dr. Ovi had the youth programmed, more or less, with as much genius as could be molded into his young mind, particularly centered around robots. Eggman had only allowed a portion of his memories and personally accumulated knowledge to be copied, as well as they could be, into the child as well. Unlike Nega, Eggman was after something fresh and new...something after his own image, yet perhaps not as evil and hell-bent on world domination. A perfect clone was one thing, but this was different. It was 99.999 Eggman's genes, about 50 of his mind, 25 fresh input, and the rest was yet to be seen in how the personality played out.

Now was a moment of truth for both Eggman and his robots as he paraded the youth into his central laboratory to introduce him to his core _staff,_ as it were. "Decoe! Bocoe! Bokkun! To me!" he hollered after them. Of course, the robots hadn't been very far off, as they were almost always spying on him, waiting for orders, presumably.

"Yes, Eggman-sama!" the trio said enthusiastically. Of course, all mechanical eyes quickly fell on the boy. He was dressed similarly to Eggman, in black and red with white highlights and gold trim. He was a redhead but much too young for a mustache or beard to develop. Yet, his bushy red eyebrows flared at the ends like Eggman's paintbrush-like mustache. His eyes were brown and shone brightly with an intelligence behind them far exceeding his physical age.

"What's that?!" Bokkun asked suddenly, hanging in mid-air, just out of reach of his master.

"I'm not a _that, _you dolt!" the young Eggman snapped back, causing Bokkun to reel end over end in shock.

"It's a..." Bocoe began.

"...Little Eggman-Sama!" Bocoe finished.

Eggman cleared his throat. "Yes..." He coughed lightly before he continued. "This...is Eggman Jr. You will obey him as you do me." The robots exchanged wayward glances at each other. "This boy is to be my heir, my successor. You are to see to it that no harm comes to him and he is well treated. Any questions?"

"Ummm..." Decoe began, trying to think of what to say without offending the boss.

"Why do you need a successor? Are you going somewhere?" Bokkun asked, standing upside down on an overhead pipe, very safely out of reach. He exchanged looks with the brown eyed boy. There was...a kind of charisma behind them, something _friendly_, something unlike Eggman's...but at the same time, it wasn't quite trustworthy.

There was an uncomfortable feeling welling in Eggman's conscious and he heaved a sigh. He looked over at the boy and decided to ignore the robot for now. "Junior? This is Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun." He pointed to the corresponding robots, and the kid nodded. "I have a certain sentiment for them. You will find them incompetent, bumbling idiots who would better make a set of toaster ovens than servants, especially considering my past. You understand?"

"Yes, Eggman," the youth said finally. His voice was light and absent of the gravity of years. It had a certain searching quality to it as the boy was really a newborn, and it would take a while to really find himself, be it the megalomaniac that was his "father," or someone else. For now, he kind of liked the impertinent robot hanging curiously from the ceiling.

"Do you know my past?" Eggman inquired.

The kid rested his hands behind his head and continued gazing at the ceiling. "Yes. You wound up on Mobius due to an accident years ago and then tried to take over their world, until the World Gate allowed you to return to Earth. You've been stopped at every turn by Sonic the hedgehog and/or his friends and lately have been betrayed by a number of your supposed allies," he said in a very dispassionate way. "You have a great love for machines, contempt for people, and strange admiration of Sonic because he's the one enigma you can't quite figure out. Does that sum things up?" He tilted his head over at the scientist and stared at him with those wide brown eyes.

"Err…." Eggman nodded.

"I could be more specific; you gave me a lot of your memories," Eggman Jr. replied, then stretched his arms out and stuck them in the pockets of his pants. He smiled a little. "I think I'll like it here."

Eggman gave a sigh, partly in relief. He was glad the kid didn't go into more intimate detail and then looked back at the robots. "Well?"

"Well what?" Decoe responded. "Err...you want something, Master?"

"**Get back to work**, you idiots!" Eggman bellowed, and the two more humanoid robots scampered back to work, tripping and fumbling to leave his inner sanctum. He then turned back to his son. It was hard to be...affectionate; it just wasn't his nature. Still, he'd try to be supporting of him at the least. "You're a strange kid, you know?" he said, patting the boy on the head. He envied his thick red spiky hair already.

"No stranger than you," he replied. He looked around the room and his eyes fell on a number of capsules lining the room…various projects, robots no doubt. While in the past they would have been equipped with lasers and missiles, bombs, and various pointed objects, most were for the park's maintenance. Even the child thought there was something odd about it, and his eyes eventually landed on a capsule that had several bits of machinery floating in it. "What's that?"

"Oh..." Eggman furrowed his brows and tried to think how to respond. "...That."


	4. Gifts

The arboretum was a large, dome-shaped enclosure with artificial lights running along the structural supports. They created artificial day and night cycles, and a wiry set of pipes provided water periodically. Even in the daytime lighting cycle, the panoramic windows allowed one to see the stars in the sky.

Originally, this room had been a testing facility for some of the creatures kept in the vivarium. It converted nicely into a full arboretum after some remodeling, though a gentle stream around its circumference remained, trailing into the Ark's water channels. In its midst was now a number of trees and plants arranged to be as natural as possible, with tables and benches set around for the enjoyment of the Ark's residents. One such cluster attracted a little girl's attention.

Ayame approached a picnic table in the middle of the arboretum. Above it was a banner reading "Happy Birthday Ayame!" in multicolor print. On it, there were number of gifts. They were wrapped in shining paper, strung with bows. They were decorated in Ayame's favorite colors and clearly, they belonged to her, or would very shortly. In the middle of all of it, was a fairly large round object. She stood on the bench part of the table and stared at it...

It was an egg; at least, it looked like one. It was fairly large, about a foot tall, and had sky blue and yellow spots on it. She lightly placed a hand on it. It was warm. Ayame looked left and right, noting that Mr. Morgan had left for the vivarium as he said he would. She decided to take it, or at least hold it for a while.

"Hello there," she started, rubbing the egg which she now held in her lap as she hung her feet over the edge of the bench. "Are you alive in there?" She picked it up and held it in front of her face. She tried to look at it through the lighting overhead, but she couldn't see much through the shell. If she had better lighting maybe. The hedgehog child cradled the egg and chuckled, "Silly...of course you are, you're nice and warm."

After a few minutes, she glanced over her shoulder to the door of the vivarium. Mr. Morgan hadn't come back, but she suspected he was on his way. Gingerly, the hedgechild set foot down on the grassy turf. She felt a rumble in the egg and almost dropped it in surprise. "Shh..." she said cautiously to it and began moving toward the door.

After a few more steps, she felt it again. The door to the vivarium opened with a slight whoosh, and Ayame quickly hid herself behind a tree. She sat down and set the egg in her lap. Glancing behind her, she saw the man make a cursory look over the place. After a minute, he decided Ayame wasn't there and let himself out. Her relief was only momentary when the egg began to shake and develop cracks. "**Ack!**" She got up quickly, sending the egg rolling on the slight hill. "No...come back, Mr. Egg!"

The egg rested in a dip in the ground next to one of the walking paths, and the crack became more pronounced. Before her eyes, it split open and a small blue and yellow creature emerged from it, wide eyed and curious. "Chaooo?" It had teardrop-shaped hands and arms, with a round pudgy body and two very small pink wings. Its eyes were cobalt blue, and though it was newborn its curiously gaping mouth showed teeth behind it.

_'It hatched.'_ Ayame blinked at the creature and didn't know what to say. The two exchanged glances, both nervous and intrigued.

"Chao?" the creature intoned again with raising curiosity. It attempted its first steps and wound up crawling instead toward the hedgehog, who took a sudden step back. "Chao?" Its tone became confused and disappointed.

"Umm..." Ayame knelt on the ground and held out a hand.

"Chao chao!" it said with a kind of purring to its suddenly higher pitched tone. It stumbled a bit as it made its way to the girl, but then held up its teardrop shaped hands.

"Aww...you're just a baby..." She smiled and picked the chao up. It wasn't too heavy, but since it was newborn it had to be hungry. It voiced as much, suddenly crying. "Hey hey...don't cry..." she frowned. '_What does it want?'_ she thought, and glanced around.

Eventually her eyes settled on some fruit hanging off a tropical tree. "Well...you have teeth..." She thought about how to get the fruit and smiled. '_I think I can do this.'_ She raised a hand toward it. "Chaos Wave." She arced her hand and a blade of Chaos flew at the fruit, severing its tie to the tree. She smiled inwardly at her triumph and that the little fellow seemed to like it. "Now what will I call you?"

Her ear twitched lightly as the door to the arboretum eventually opened. She had assumed it was Morgan returning for something else...but she had assumed wrong. "_**Ayame...**_" Shadow's voice said darkly behind her.

* * *

"What is it?" Eggman Jr. asked his "father" as they approached the capsule with the incoherent parts scattered at it. It was the only capsule like it. Most of them had cleaning or maintenance drones in them, even moderately recognizable. This was just a collection of parts, set aside from the others, yet curiously in sight.

"Hnnn…." Eggman replied with a heavy sigh, stroking his paintbrush mustache in deep thought. "I can't have you knowing all of my mind, now can I?" He glanced at the boy from behind his pitch black frames, wondering what would become of him. He was certainly in a unique position, a potential madman and far too intelligent for his age. It looked as though he'd have little chance at a normal life. It was something Eggman had long ago taken into consideration, but as he'd failed to attract anyone (shock, surprise), this would have to do.

Junior grinned a bit. "I'll find out soon enough." He removed a hand from one pocket and smoothed down his spiky red hair. There was a lot yet to be seen about the boy. Would he be a social recluse like his father? From appearances alone, he had a certain charm to him, a charisma, but what else?

"Aye...that you will. Well now," Eggman started abruptly and turned him toward another capsule nearby, "I decided to give you a little welcoming gift." The mad scientist smiled toothily and shoved his protégé toward a smaller, silver capsule with no window to it. "I had it made just for you," he continued and pressed a certain combination on a console to the side of it.

Junior watched curiously, only because Eggman had left out a chunk of his memories and persona, of which he was already trying to fill in the blanks. He'd only been conscious for about twelve hours, but he'd been _dreaming_ far longer than that. It was in those dreams that he saw the world of the waking, saw the past and present of his father. There were a few things that had intrigued him, and they were the very same enigmas that rolled around in his head like a Rubik's Cube. Maybe he would get the chance to solve them.

Moments later, the capsule gave a mechanical hiss, and the shell peeled away in layers, revealing what looked like a chao beneath. Unlike its fleshy counterparts, of course, this one was made of metal. Its servos whirred into action, and a little propeller on its head gave it flight. "I give you...Oomochao."

The boy's bushy red brows turned in disappointment. "That's it?"

The tall, fat man looked down at him, slightly disapproving. Then again, he hardly had manners himself in some ways. "Well...yes."

"Lame," Junior retired. "Where's the lasers? Where's the death rays? The machines? The big booms?" He made motions with his arms, spreading them wider with each fantastic idea. "You call _this_ an offering?! HAH!"

From high above the pair, a robot had been watching…Bokkun, of course, wondering just what the big deal was. He was still trying to reason out why Junior was there in the first place, let alone why the doctor felt that a robot chao was a suitable toy.

Displaying a kind of patience none of his robots found familiar, Eggman did not hit the boy or give any witty, threatening remarks either. He seemed to consider things as he pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "It's a toy," he said calmly. "Just one of many machinations, and not the last. I felt he would be a good gift, considering your apparent age, but you seem to have already outgrown him. Come on then." He made a motion with his head and then started quickly down the catwalk, toward another room at the far end.

Bokkun decided to follow the pair, trailing behind them and Oomochao a few feet. "Hey, wait!" he heard it call, but neither looked back at the already forgotten robot. He couldn't help feeling a pang of sympathy for it. He often thought he would wind up lost and forgotten, in a state of disrepair, rusting on some street corner.

"This…is yours," Eggman boomed in a grandiose voice, spanning a hand across a darkly lit room, which quickly sprang to life. It was a laboratory, full of machines and high tech gadgets; it was only about one-third less the size of Eggman's own main laboratory. It was a perfect work environment.

"Now you're talking," Junior smiled broadly. "Now...you're talking."

* * *

It was an awkward situation to be in for Shadow. Somehow, he'd known he'd find her in the arboretum, known she'd get into her birthday presents prematurely. He should punish her for running away, for being where she shouldn't, for stealing something, even if it had yet to be given to her. He eyed the chao in a way that frightened it completely, and it began to cry. _'I hate birthdays...' _he snarled mentally.

"Papa! You're scaring him!" Ayame said, partly glaring at her father in defiance. On a child, her brows knit into a scowl didn't have quite the same effect as her father's. In a way it was laughable, but on the other hand, she was holding the chao protectively. He couldn't fault her for that. She glanced around nervously and started fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

"Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I were?" Shadow's tone was dark, but calm, like a snake about to strike. His words were deliberate and heavy.

Ayame's attempt at a glowering look melted into a pitiful frown as she hugged her new pet. "I...I didn't mean to…." She began to shake a little, fearful of what her dad might do, even if he'd never intentionally hurt her.

He continued his disapproving leer while his mind raced to figure out some conclusion to it. Part of him wanted to back down right now because he'd obviously upset her. However, there was the very real fact she was being a disobedient brat. He gritted his teeth and felt the blood run hot in his veins. "_**You...**_"

"P--Papa?" The girl folded her ears back, looking even more pathetic than she had a moment ago.

"Rrr..." Shadow slammed his fist into the tree behind her, releasing a blast of Chaos fire with it. The tropical plant fell over with a loud crack and burnt to a crisp in seconds. The fire system almost came on but for the fact it came and went so fast. Shadow turned on his heel then started for the door. "Come on," he commanded, not waiting for Ayame's reply. _'Let's see what your mom has to say about things...'_

"Papa?" the girl ventured, but quickly got to her feet and away from the burnt palm.

"**What?**" he replied, his anger still raw and red.

"C...can I keep him?" she asked, still carrying the chao with her.

His ear ticked her way, but he didn't reply until they left the arboretum. "We'll see." Shadow stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a group of hedgehogs heading down the hall. For a moment, he wasn't sure that he was seeing things right. '_Maria?'_ he thought. For a second, he saw a human clad in blue and white, but when he blinked his crimson eyes, he saw _his_ Maria. The one he'd raised. She was, in turn, wearing clothing very similar to the human he once cherished.

"You found her!" Sara called joyously, until she saw the look on his face. When she took a more solid look at their daughter she knew what was up. "Oh…." She paused. "Starting the party without us?"

"You could say that," he returned blandly.

"Grandpa!" two small voices called, and snapped Shadow out of his inner turmoil. The pair of children latched onto his legs and looked up at him with bright smiles on their tiny faces. Their crimson eyes shone brilliantly, reflecting an innocence Ayame seemed to have already lost.

"Hey, squirts." He sighed a bit and patted them both on the head. "Give your daddy hell, will ya?"

"Daddy, that's not very nice," Maria said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

He shrugged a bit. "I didn't tell them to give _you_ a hard time." He managed a smile but gave a last look back at his daughter. His eyes said it all. '_We'll talk about this...later.'_


	5. In Trouble

"Doctor Strauf?" A small, female voice came from behind the physician, who was sitting staring over some information on a computer terminal.

The human ventured a glance behind her, her even expression turning slightly south when she noticed who was addressing her. "Yes, that's me. State your business," she said while smoothing back a loose strand of hair.

The duck Mobian cleared her throat. "I am Doctor Malory; I was just assigned to your medical staff."

"Yes. Very good... Well then, perhaps you should get to work. I think there's a few appointments I can't personally attend to this very instant," she replied in the most dismissive of tones. She didn't care for Mobians, this was true, but if having a Mobian on her staff meant not having to deal with them, so be it.

"Umm...well, actually..." the avian began. The human wheeled around in her swiveling office chair, and she knew by the displeased look what she was dealing with. "I understand you don't like Mobians very much, but there's a specific patient I've been asked to see. However, I would like to look over her medical records, and the MRT informed me that a number of them were transferred to your care, Dr. Strauf." She placed the human with a steely gaze that she hoped was unreadable. The woman seemed to ponder things a minute before swiveling back to her computer and typing things in on the keys. "Doctor...?"

The human let go of a sigh and motioned to another chair next to her, which also swiveled but was not as plush. "Despite whatever they've told you about my opinion of Mobians, I do _not_ lower my standards in treating patients. I have, in fact, been compiling a report on Mrs. Shadow, if that's who you're talking about."

"Sara, yes." The bird climbed up into the seat, knowing full well that the doctor would make her work hard with little credit at anything, so asking for some more accommodating furniture was out of the question. "A report?" she queried.

"Yes...I've been doing a full review of her recorded medical history and comparing it to close family members including, but not limited to, Shadow." Her tone held a certain disdain at his mention, but a piqued curiosity over the hedgehog.

"I understand she's been suffering from inexplicable vertigo as of late," Malory put in and glanced at the screen. She felt rather uncomfortable around the woman, but tried to keep things at a professional level.

"..Yes." She keyed in a few things and brought up a copy of her medical history, chronicling doctor visits specifically. "I find it a bit odd, you know..."

"What?" The duck kept herself at a respectful distance, which Dr. Strauf seemed to appreciate grudgingly.

"Well, her history is fairly uneventful as medical charts go. She's had her share of childhood illnesses, broken bones, and physicals. What is unusual is that, in recent years, there's been a decline of doctor visits outside her usual donations to the MRT's research." Strauf waited, but the duck said nothing, so she continued. "I've found a similar trend in her children. Her first, Maria, has had only three illnesses in her lifetime, her brother Ashura has had two, and her newborn sister has yet to contract any diseases."

The Mobian cleared her throat. "Well, I do understand that their father is...well...Shadow, and he's rather...err..._unique._"

"Yes..." she sneered a bit at his mention, "the u_ltimate_ life form. I know...Project: Shadow. That whole thing…." Her tone grew more sour with each passing word and she looked as though she had just smelled a skunk.

"I can only assume that's related or relevant in this case, but as to exactly why..." Malory ventured.

"She's getting healthier," Strauf stated blithely.

"That doesn't seem to jibe with the fact she's having headaches and dizzy spells," the Mobian doctor countered, resting an elbow on the table.

"I know...but I have a theory…." While Strauf generally disliked Mobians, and had nothing but hatred for Shadow in particular, he was unique. "I think Shadow has _infected_ her somehow."

"...You're saying her mate's the cause?" Now Malory became rather dubious over this.

"Aside a case or two of food poisoning, he seems immune to anything thrown at his system. From checkup to checkup, nothing changes. Nothing significant, anyhow. And he isn't aging normally either by what I understand is normal of your kind. That appears to be happening with Sara now as well." She wrinkled her nose a bit and adjusted her glasses. "Perhaps the dizziness is just her body adjusting to things…. Maybe something about being _here_ has done it."

"And what is it you think has...happened?" the duck inquired, taking advantage of a rare side of the human doctor she fully wasn't expecting.

"I'll need to run some more tests, but I think it has to do with their mitochondrial DNA," Strauf mused aloud. Mitochondria were well known to be the power plants of living cells, yet their DNA was independent of the host cell's DNA, and without the mitochondria being there, the other wouldn't function. This bizarre symbiosis was not fully understood even in today's medicine, but the mitochondria had been linked to a number of functions that included the living cell's respiratory system and energy distribution and potentially playing a part in the role of _aging_.

That gave quite a bit right there for Malory to think about. "...Let me see what I can find out," she suggested.

* * *

"Grandpa?" Sonic laughed as he joined the group, with Amy and the Thorndykes close on his bright red and white heels. No matter how old he got, he'd always find some variant on those white-striped red sneakers to wear. It was just how he was. Shadow cast a dangerous look on the blue hedgehog, but his smile simply widened. "Chill out, Cuz. Just sounds funny, doesn't it?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "_Grandpa_." He smirked meaningfully.

"Shut up." Shadow managed to project a neutral expression as he looked down at the gray copies of himself. While most parents might have liked their image engraved on their children and subsequent grandchildren, his alien heritage was something he'd been a bit hesitant about introducing to the Mobian genome. He always felt that part of his temper and violent nature had been caused by heredity, and it was something he found himself constantly at odds with even after all these years. But it was only his youngest who seemed to pick up that trait, and he was not happy about it. '_I'll have to tell her eventually….'_ he thought.

"Why don't you guys go inside? We'll be in in a minute." Sara smiled, diverting the birthday guests to the unlocked arboretum.

"All right. Sooner we get things started, the sooner we get cake, right?" Chase smiled and slipped an arm around his mate.

Maria smiled in return. "Millie, Gray, come on!" She waved a hand and the two kids separated from Shadow's legs, obediently slipping inside the artificial park. "We'll be waiting! Don't be long, okay, Daddy?"

"We won't." He gave another glare at Sonic, who had just laughed over the "_Daddy"_ comment.

Ayame had attempted to slip inside with the others but for the fact Sara caught her by the scruff of her neck. "Come on, sweetie...I think we need to talk."

"Mommy…." Ayame whined.

"Sweetie..." Sara said in an exasperated sigh. She almost fell forward as another episode struck her.

Shadow was quick to respond and held her to him for support. Just another thing to add to his list of worries. He happened to catch sight of Ayame's expression, which was worried and also possibly blame of herself for what was happening to Sara. "Ayame..."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do anything wrong, I mean it!" the girl protested.

"Chao chaoooooo!" The creature in her arms added its own cooing protests.

"You shouldn't run off..." Sara began after the world stopped spinning. She was generally good at masking discomfort, but she didn't feel like it at the moment so her face showed the edges of a frown. "And that chao was supposed to be a gift. You ruined the surprise by doing that..." She shook her head disapprovingly, thinking she should avoid that until the doctors could tell her more about what was happening. _'It's getting worse...'_ Shadow's arms were supportive, but not comforting at the moment. It was going to be another long day.

"I'm sorry..." Ayame repeated.

"That's not good enough," the sky blue hedgehog replied, not entirely sure how she sounded right now. Her focus was elsewhere, but she tried to bring her mind to the here and now. She could tell a lot about what was on Shadow's mind by his body language, and as stiff as he stood right now, she could tell he was greatly displeased.

"But..."

"Sweetie, you have Papa angry and I'm not too pleased either, baby." Sara sighed.

"What do we do about the chao? I'm not sure she should have it any more," Shadow put in.

"No! Please! I wanna raise it, please!?" Ayame begged. The chao was aware it was being discussed and began whining pitifully.

'That aspirin would be really really welcome about now,' Sara thought inwardly. She turned to Shadow, her brown eyes glinting with a somewhat worn look to them. "You want to take it away from her?" Shadow nodded.

"**No! No! Pleaseee!!** I promise I'll be good! I'm sorry, okay!?" Ayame pleaded. A few desperate tears gathered in their eyes.

"...Maybe it'd be good for her…." Sara conceded softly to Shadow. "..Teach her some responsibility."

Shadow heaved a sigh. He could ignore Ayame's pleading and whining, he could ignore the chao, but he couldn't ignore Sara since he had wanted her input on this. He let his stony disposition ebb a bit, and it reflected in the way he held his mate. "Fine." The girl looked up at him hopefully, but his eyes were still harsh, though they did betray his soft side a bit and he looked away from her. "You're not off the hook just yet, kid," he said in a heavy tone. "You're going to have to take good care of that chao...and we don't want to hear it crying or anything. What you did in taking it, though, was technically theft…. You could be in serious trouble if it wasn't us you had to deal with." He managed to place her with a scowl and she looked him in the eyes more seriously. "We're not going to have any more trouble from you two now, are we?"

"No, Papa," Ayame responded.

There was a relieved sigh from both parents and Sara managed a smile. "Well then, it's your birthday, so let's see about that cake and those presents, shall we?" The girl cheered and disappeared into the arboretum so fast, she had to laugh at it.

"Are you okay?" Shadow asked into her ear softly once Ayame was inside.

"No," Sara replied, relaxing against him, "but I will be. I was going to pop a couple aspirin anyhow."

"The new doctor arrived, right?" Shadow inquired, still holding her until he was sure she had her footing sorted out.

"Yeah. Malory, you remember her, right?" Sara was relieved to find the dizzy sensation had finally left her. She glanced down the silver-white halls to her left and right, and the world managed to stop with her line of vision. _'That's better.'_

"Yeah." Shadow frowned a little bit. He harbored a bit of a grudge to the doctor, since she'd handled Ayame's birth, and it was the only troubled labor Sara had had. That wasn't exactly a comfort, but at least she was Mobian. "You still need, I can get the aspirin."

"Thanks," Sara replied gratefully and headed on into the park for their daughter's fourth birthday party. Maybe with everything going on, she could convince him they should go back home, but that was a matter to bring up later.


	6. Child Abuse

As expected, Junior wanted to see the sights of his new home first thing. Eggman Land had a number of rides for children and adults ranging from teacups, swings, and standard Ferris wheels to roller coasters, thrill rides, and more. There were a number of robots wandering the park at all times, and those that weren't assigned for maintenance and cleanup were often performing in one way or another.

It was all going well and fine, until one of the attending robots told Junior he was "too short" for a particular ride.

"What?! Too short! Do you know who I am?" Eggman Jr. voiced aloud.

The robot attendant began looking nervous, which was a pretty amazing thing considering it had two gold orbs for eyes and didn't blink or sweat. "Umm...yes?"

"So let me on!" the kid snapped at it, stamping his foot on the pavement. Several of the customers jerked back from the young Eggman, muttering about his bad behavior and blaming the parents... So oddly true.

"W...we can't," the robot attendant insisted. About a half hour later, that same robot, or parts of him, made up extension shoes as the child genius toured _his_ park in a typically _inconspicuous_ long trench coat…not to mention the two flying robots keeping a safe distance from him.

"Why does everybody hate me?" Oomochao asked Bokkun.

He shrugged reply. "I don't know. I get the feeling everybody hates me too. I just don't think about it too hard." The robot grinned from bolt to bolt. "Besides, I can just blow them up later." He cackled.

"Wow. Really?" the small blue robot chao inquired, trying his best to keep up. He wasn't as speedy or as good at stopping when he bumped into Bokkun's hand when he came to a sudden stop.

"Just keep your distance," he said in a hushed whisper. '_This looks interesting. Little Master versus Big Master...' _"He he…. Just sit back and watch the fireworks." He rubbed his hands together and hid behind a poster for eggrolls (a specialty in the ChinaEgg part of the park).

Eggman was beginning to think it might not have been the wisest thing to tell his robots to "treat Junior as you would me." He cleared his throat before speaking to the _lanky man_ before him. "Excuse me…." he said with utmost respect.

Junior, also donning a pair of "E.G.G.M.A.N." comedy glasses complete with bulbous nose and fake mustache, replied in his deepest tone, "Excuse _me_. I'm in a bit of a hurry…."

"Right," Eggman responded flatly. "Junior..." His tone was disapproving as he leaned on a long black cane with a fairly egg-shaped gold knob at the end. He was getting on in years, but he was still rather spry, so it was yet to be seen if he actually needed it for walking or if it stood by as an effect.

"They wouldn't let me on the ride!" Junior fumed and stomped on the ground, almost losing control over his robotic legs, and heard an unpleasant creak in the metal and springs.

"Yes...yes...they're supposed to turn people away who aren't tall enough," Eggman droned.

"But I am _Eggman!_" the boy complained.

"Should we help?" Oomochao inquired with mounting apprehension.

"Nah, he's good," Bokkun assured him. There was a sort of grin on his face, anticipating what would come.

"_YOU_ are _my _**son**. _MY_ clone! And _you_ are _still_ a **child!**" Eggman bellowed and yanked away the trench coat, causing young Eggboy to spin on his metal legs and eventually lose his balance. He fell to the ground unceremoniously, the crunch and scrape of metal meeting concrete and a stark cry with it. Surely just a bruise or a scrape. He'd learn better eventually...at least, part of Eggman hoped.

Junior pulled himself up off the ground, making a great show of dusting off his fine red jacket that had been hidden under the trench coat. His oak brown eyes bored into his elder's for a minute, but behind the black reflective frames, he seemed impervious. "Just wait 'til I've grown, _Father._"

"Yes...let's. Now...since you've decided to open your stay here with a little lark..." he breathed in heavily, "you're grounded."

"W-w-_what?!"_ Junior retorted in a squeaky voice.

Eggman began strolling down the thruway, not looking back at the boy. "Decoe! Bocoe! Show Junior to his room. If he wants company, he's got Oomochao," the doctor said stiffly and continued his walk, twirling his walking cane carelessly as he went.

"It's not fair!" Junior cried defiantly, kicking at one of the metal stilts and then shortly after hopping on one foot.

"Sorry, Little Master…." Decoe began apologetically, afraid to take him by the arm.

Bocoe helped on the master's other side by giving Junior a penned-in impression, though neither robot was particularly brave. "Come on, you heard Eggman-sama."

"Don't call me that...!" he whined; he sighed inwardly and decided he'd better find some way of making a name for himself...before the old man kicked the bucket. Behind the group, the two flying robots exchanged looks and decided to follow silently.

* * *

Sara had spent the last week since Ayame's birthday being poked and prodded by Dr. Malory. Until further testing was done, the avian was keeping Strauf's theory to herself. It was a bit frustrating for Sara, and she found herself wishing for some peace and quiet. Sleep was becoming a sparse commodity, and even in the idyllic conditions provided by the station's heating and cooling systems, she was finding no rest.

'_I'm really tired of this….'_ she thought and sat on the edge of their space foam mattress. She wanted to get up and wondered where Shadow and Ayame were, but the room was spinning again. _'At least drunks have a reason for the bed spins…..'_ There was a typical whoosh as the door to the room slid open, followed by the patter of little feet. She glanced down and happened to see a blue and yellow creature, now with rabbit ears clinging to her head since a recent trip to the vivarium. It shivered and quaked as though it was scared. "Hey, Babbit…." Sara said gently and stroked the chao's head.

"Aww...we were playing..." a small voice put in with a slight pout.

Adjusting her world view so it didn't twist so much, Sara ventured a timid glance into the middle of the room. There were two children there, one gray and orange and the other gray and sky blue. "Playing?"

"Uh huh!" the girl stated.

A half smile crept onto Sara's face. "Playing what? Babbit's scared."

The kids looked to one another sheepishly and the boy stepped forward. "Hide an' seek!" He smiled, with a big gap between his front teeth. His sister made a similar expression, sticking her tongue out at the chao.

"Right well...I don't think Babbit wants to play anymore," Sara replied and held the little critter.

"Chao chaoooo..." it looked up at Sara with its big sapphire eyes, little crystal-like tears welling in them.

"I think Babbit wants to see his mommy, what do you think?" She smiled at her grandchildren, who nodded. "Great! Any idea where Ayame and Grandpa are?" Kids were always so good about being blunt. She hoped they knew, even in part.

The girl tapped her left shoe against the ground and twitched an ear in thought. They may have been Shadow's grandkids, but the way their quills lay and the poses they struck bore far more resemblance to Sonic. Sara really couldn't account for it on a personality level, though the physical semblance was genetically possible. "Ohhh...awes some Uncle Sonic said they go spar in lab-a-to-rney!"

"Awesome? Don't you mean great uncle, Chamomile?" Sara grinned a bit, feeling more relaxed as she stood. '_World's only slightly askew today...'_ She was rather glad the party guests would be staying until the next commercial flight back, with the exception of Chris and Helen, who had to shuttle back to Earth after the event. It just felt better having company, since there wasn't a lot of places she could usually go to on the colony.

"Awes some!" the girl repeated and started for the door. "He says he's better than great, so we call him awes some."

"Right well. Let's go see 'awes some' Uncle Sonic and Grandpa Shadow, okay?" Sara trusted her weight to the floor and found it easier to walk today. The last three days, her vertigo seemed particularly crippling. The fact Shadow hadn't been around much was beginning to worry her; usually he was at her side every possible second when she was sick. Then again, it had been a couple months at least... '_He trusts you...' _she thought, though she had a feeling it was something else entirely.

* * *

"Ahh! You must be Mrs. Shadow?" Mr. Morgan said in his deep gentle tones to the hedgehog.

"Ahh...you don't have to call me that... Just Sara will do." She smiled back. Everything had leveled out on their way to the labs, and though she'd never been in them, they seemed to know who she was quite well. Of course, she kept the children and the chao close at hand; wouldn't do to have her grandbabies in harm's way.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'm not too familiar with Mobian customs. Oh, and I'm sorry, it's my fault your daughter got into the arboretum a few nights ago. I didn't think it'd cause any harm." They were still in the foyer, and while Nate seemed glad to have her there, the other scientists were beginning to whisper between themselves. "Now, I'm a robotics expert myself, but I'm familiar with the work of my colleagues. They're most enthusiastic to have Shadow working with them on Project: Chaos."

"...Project: Chaos?" Sara lifted a curious brow. "...Working with?"

"Well yes. He did...tell you, didn't he?" Nate inquired, suddenly realizing he'd let something slip that he shouldn't. He tried to smooth it over as best he could. "We're looking into the properties of Chaos Emeralds and trying to find a solution for stabilizing their energies. We already have a working model with the Chaos Drives, but it can always be improved. Your husband has a remarkable ability for controlling Chaos."

Sara was rather quiet considering this, keeping an eye on the kids more to occupy her mind than anything else. "So, he volunteered for this?"

"Actually, they're paying him quite a sum I understand; I believe he mentioned something about quitting Enviroreach..." Mr. Morgan stroked his grayed beard and tried to gauge the Mobian's reaction.

It made a lot of sense now...why they weren't going home. And he hadn't even told her... '_Baka….'_ Sara thought numbly. "Can you show me where he is?" She felt herself say it, but the voice wasn't quite her own. "The kids said he was sparring my cousin Sonic here."

Nate's wrinkled brow knit together in an odd way. That said enough to Sara, but after a moment he responded. "Yes...yes...right this way."

* * *

Sara and the children were led into an observation room, looking down on a Chaos containment chamber below. The walls were not only thick, but there was a slight shimmering to them made by force fields meant to hold back or disperse Chaos energy. As Chris Thorndyke had promised Shadow, he was allowed access to the facilities for his own purposes. This was most definitely not for Project: Chaos.

'_I am so killing him...'_ the sky blue hedgehog thought with her eyes aflame as she looked into the room.

Shadow was near the center of it, with Ayame facing him, and the two were controlling a large, greenish-black swell of Chaos energy between the two of them. While she couldn't hear what they were saying, she did note that Ayame wasn't wearing the limiters he usually insisted she wear.

For some reason, Shadow tilted his head to the observation area. His crimson eyes flickered in panic momentarily as he caught sight of just _who_ was watching them. '_SHIT!'_ ...And just long enough to lose control of his end of the ball. "Damn it!" He growled and dodged out of the way as the newly created imbalance of energy caused the swell to shoot forward, propelled by Ayame's Chaos feed.

"Oh wow!" The girl beamed brightly. "Look, Papa! It's like fireworks!" she said in awe as the Chaos crackled against the barrier.

"Enough. Put on your limiters," Shadow instructed, regaining his composure.

"...But..." Ayame frowned.

"_Now,_" his voice projected very clearly to the girl.

"I don't want..." She quickly dove for the pieces of jewelry lying on the floor when Shadow's hand nearly struck her across the face. "Papa! I don't like it!" she squealed.

"Get used to it." His tone was heavy and he turned his attention back to the observation room. She was gone. His lips weighed in a set scowl. She wasn't supposed to know. He changed his view to the door leading into the chamber and waited.

"Papa? Can we do more…." Ayame tried to ask, but the look in his eyes should have said enough.

The door soon slid open and Sara was standing there, with Nate Morgan keeping an eye on the kids for her momentarily.

"W-what was that?" Shadow's mate wasn't quite sure what to say at this point, where to start...but it was going to be messy…especially with his stony silence. "When were you going to tell me you quit your job on Earth and got one here? What...what are you doing with _our _daughter?"

"Mommy! Mommy, look! I can use Chaos!" Ayame beamed brightly, and demonstrated a couple of teleports before building up a small sphere of Chaos energy, like the one she and Shadow had been working on. "See? I can do it really well! Papa said I can take off the lim'ters if I get really good!" In fact, she'd only put one of them on.

Shadow's sense of Chaos suddenly sparked with that orb. "Damnit, Ayame! Stop it!"

"Shadow! You stop!" Sara yelled back at him, still rather unsure what she was doing, but it wasn't good. She lost her footing as she tried to strike him across the face, the world once again spinning out of her grasp.

"Mo...Mommy!" Normally, reaching out for her mother would've been a good thing but for the fact she hadn't dissipated the orb of Chaos yet. She couldn't really; Shadow had taught her how to build it, but she was still sketchy on the releasing part. It did release, though...right at her.

"**Chaos Control!**" Shadow bellowed. Everything went silent after that, even the Chaos that struck, and the now unconscious body in his arms. '_Crap...'_


	7. In Dreams

_Shadow was standing by the window, looking out at the blue planet below. He was not alone. He never had been, but _she_ was there. Not Maria, as was typically the case. No, this time it was someone else. His gaze was searching, apprehensive perhaps, but with its stoic component that separated him from normal beings. He didn't seem to know what exactly was missing, just that something was out of place._

_Wordlessly, Shadow looked around the room. He also looked through, rather than _at, h_is extra dimensional guest. It was as though _she_ did not exist. Perhaps the watcher was just stunned, but _she_ made no attempt to reach him. He picked the ecosphere off the mantle and inspected it, then replaced it just as quickly. He checked under the bed where there were old board games; he moved on._

_Soon, he was walking the halls. The carpeting was red, _she_ noticed that. Only red and blue seemed to stand out in this mind's dreamscape. The red seemed particularly harsh, though, unforgiving, almost blood-like._

_Eventually _she_ found her voice. "Shadow?" it called meekly._

_He halted immediately and spun on his heel. His crimson eyes were as piercing as the very first time _she'_d seen them. They had that leer to them that could, if it were possible, melt steel. _She_ couldn't look at them for long, but she tried. Her head bowed after a scant fifteen seconds, but he had said nothing._

_Shadow turned again and walked, his aimless gait seeming somehow awkward. There was a soft click of his metal soled shoes when they stepped between carpeted areas of floor. He led the dreamer across platforms and catwalks, through abandoned cafeterias and vacant halls. The rhythm of his footsteps clipping across carpet and aluminum were the only noises to be heard._

_To grateful ears, there was a rushing noise as one door opened with a whoosh, but what was on the other side was no comfort. It was still the Ark, but it was a twisted, mangled metal form. The sky seemed blacker than ever, with the few stars hanging in the velvet seemingly absorbed by its immense blackness. At the end of the only perceived path was the biolizard, a bright orange against the gray scale station. It roared out defiantly, but Shadow trudged on, and so did _she.

_They were on the outside somehow, and though panic surged through the dreamer, she was suddenly aware that _in dreams_ you don't need to breathe. She only hoped this was a dream, but it seemed like she had been asleep for a long time._

_"Shadow," she called again. He didn't reply, and she felt like her voice had become even more faint than it had been before. '_Who am I?'

_An inky substance, dark as night, drew around Shadow. It was a Chaos aura, a black one. All she could do was watch as a palm stretched forth and the sickly energies enveloped the biolizard. It gave a gut-wrenching cry before the tendrils of energy overpowered it, and from that mass, something else appeared, a red eye connected to a body of tentacles, each one projecting an ominous air._

She _was sure she felt sick now. "Shadow...do something!" she called. _

_His ear tilted toward her, but he and the creature simply locked gazes. She could see him in that blood red eye, and for the first time aside for that scream, she felt like she could _really_ hear in the dream._

_"My son...do not deny your blood," the creature said in a venomous tone that made _her_ skin crawl._

_"How could I…Father?" the jet black and crimson replied in similarly acidic tones. He lifted a hand, and the creature relieved him of his bonds, his limiters. Dangerous energies whipped around the two of them freely, and it seemed to _her_ as though he were offering himself like a flesh-bound battery fresh off the charging station. Her voice failed as the creature quickly moved to consume Shadow, a spray of crimson showering the steel rails he had been on, while yet more spheres of blood drifted by, weightless._

_She was sick, terrified, and on her knees. The _thing_ was staring at her now. It laughed. "And __**you**__ only have a fraction of his potential...but I can be reborn..." the alien hissed gleefully. "I will be. You will all be but a passing memory."_

_"_There is more to him than this. Do not worry,"_ a gentle voice said beside _her._ This was Maria...Shadow's Maria._

_"...What is this?" _she_ managed to say._

_"He hasn't been keeping his heart very well, has he?" Maria continued, seeming far more solid now as she stepped between the dreamer and the alien. 'It was the Chaos Control, that's why you're here. But this is just an illusion." She held up her hand, and though far less flourishy, the visage of Black Doom flew away like bits of paper, leaving an unconscious Shadow suspended where the monster had been._

_"...I don't know what's going on with him," s_he_ replied despondently. "I don't think I'm...strong enough to keep him. It was just a fluke we got together anyway..."_

_"_Sara,_" Maria's voice reached her ears as gently as feathers. "Don't give up...he needs you now more than ever. And Ayame too."_

_The hedgehog smiled a little and glanced at the human. "What are you? An angel? A ghost? A memory?"_

_The returned smile was cryptic at best. "It doesn't matter...just try not to be too upset when you wake, okay? He still remembers you, I promise."_

Sara_ glanced at the form of her love, suspended on nothing. His eyes were slit ever so slightly, and the crimson pools looked on her apologetically. "Sara…." He saw her._

_She smiled slightly as the station began to fade into the back of her head. She could feel her blood flowing hot through her veins, hear her name being called by another. "W-wait! Maria! I have so many questions...!" The darkness that surrounded her now was not a terrifying void, but the back of her own eyelids, and just a moment or two later she could open them. She attempted to hang onto the unconscious realm, at least long enough to find out what was going on._

_"You'll get the answers! Just be patient!" Maria's voice encouraged._

_"_**Sara….**_"_

* * *

"Mr. Morgan?" a young female hedgehog inquired of the elderly scientist.

The human did his best to smile, but he was not very good with kids, particularly those with quills. "Ahh you...must be Maria?" he asked in reply, a little uneasy over the day's events.

"Yes." The midnight blue hedgehog nodded and glanced at the laboratory foyer. She quickly caught sight of Chamomile and Earl Gray, her offspring, and they were busy tugging on poor Babbit's ears. "Mille! Gray! Come on!" She shook her head disapprovingly, but the two children hurried to her side on command, at least.

"You look very much like Misses Sara." He smiled a little, then frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Maria shook her head. "No, it's all right really. I think this has been coming for a while now…so you know, it had to bubble up eventually." The midnight hedgehog pushed her dark reddish brown bangs away from her face and made another once over of the room. "And my sister is...?"

"Sis...you don't mean Shadow's little girl, do you?" He held a hand up in the air not very high off the ground, and Maria laughed at that.

"Yes. She's my sister." She chuckled.

"Oh, sorry, I hadn't realized...I guess there's a lot I'm in the dark about," Mr. Morgan replied and looked around the room. He detected some movement behind one of the chairs and pointed. " I think you'll find her there."

Maria smiled and headed over to the padded chair. "Like I said, it's quite all right. I don't blame you if you're a little surprised…. There usually isn't this much of an age gap between siblings." In a very childish way, the young hedgehog hopped into the chair, planting her knees on the cushion and peering down eagerly behind the furniture. "Why hello there!"

Ayame was curled into a tight ball while sulking. The red and black quills stuck out at all angles and shivered slightly with silent tears. The older of the two could detect a darker patch of carpeting where her tears had fallen.

"Ayame?" she called softly, and reached out a hand. Her fingertips grazed along the prickly spines with the growth rather than against. While it was still easy for Mobians to get a poke from the quilled species, most knew instinctively (or quickly learned) how to avoid them. With a sensitive girl like Maria, she was able to get further and go directly to the root nature of the subject. Very soon after, the ball of spines less resembled a medieval torture device, and looked more like her sister. "Hey, kiddo."

"Hi..." Ayame replied softly.

"Whatcha doin'?" Maria queried.

"...Hiding."

"Why?" Shadow's eldest kept her tone light and gaze gentle. Red seemed to be the color of love in her eyes, rather than the heated fire often seen in her father.

"...I almost hurt Mommy..." She sniffed. She vividly recalled the look in her father's eyes after he'd reemerged into the normal flow of time. He was absolutely livid. Mille and Gray had the sense to be frightened and hid behind Mr. Morgan, but Ayame had never felt so exposed as when _those eyes_ looked at her like that. That, and he yelled...oh did he yell. She'd _never_ seen him that angry.

"What happened?" she asked gently and plucked the girl from behind the chair. She then sat in it the proper way, Ayame clinging to her much as she would have their mother.

"Can we go? I'm hungry," Gray suddenly voiced, the orange streaked boy looking at his mother pleadingly.

"Yeah! Me too!" Millie chirped, hugging a very unhappy Babbit roughly around his neck.

She sighed. "Put Babbit down and we'll go in just a minute." She stroked her fingers through her little sister's quills comfortingly. "You can tell me."

"I...I didn't listen to Daddy and..." She looked at her wrists, never feeling so relieved as she was then to see the gold bands in place. "I didn't put on my other band...and I used Chaos and...Mommy..."

"Mom's all right, I'm sure of it," Maria voiced softly, kissing the top of the little child's head and holding her supportively as she stood up with slight effort from the chair.

"Am I a freak?" Ayame asked suddenly when they were about halfway into the hall leading back toward the food court. Her little niece and nephew were ahead of them, both trailing Babbit, with Maria occasionally calling them off.

The older sister only slowed for a step or two, as if struck by the question, but she shook her head. "No."

"Then why do I have these?" She held up her wrists, showing off the gold bands like an inmate just admitted to prison. "All they do is suck my energy an' the one time I don't wear them Mama..."

"They don't suck your energy, they siphon off extra Chaos energy." The answer didn't seem to satisfy Ayame so she held a hand up to the gold band around her own neck. "I have one. Your brother does too...he keeps his on his ankle."

Small glittering ruby eyes darted to the gold band. It didn't look unusual, at least. "Mommy doesn't have one. Uncle Sonic doesn't have one."

"I know. But we're not freaks...just special," Maria comforted. She directed the children down the hall to the left, heading for the heart of the station where the main plaza was.

"But I almost..."

"Yeah. You almost hurt Mom, but you didn't." Maria nuzzled her lil' sister's head and then stroked her puffy white bangs. She really did look like their father, though her eyes didn't have that edge to them. "You know Chaos can heal too?"

"It can?" Ayame quizzed, looking up at her sis, who nodded.

"Yep, I saved Chase's life once using Chaos Healing." She noted how Ayame brightened at that. "I'm sure Daddy just wants you to learn how to control your power so you don't hurt anyone, that's why you have to wear the limiters. So you'll be good, right?"

Ayame nodded. "I'm gonna go heal Mommy!" She beamed and attempted to hop out of Maria's arms.

"Hey...!"

* * *

"Sara..." Shadow frowned deeply, watching Sara's troubled sleep from a nearby folding chair. Something had splintered off somehow when he used that Chaos Control and held her in his arms, and he wasn't at all comfortable with it. He'd immediately sought medical help, so here he was, in the infirmary, watching her unnatural slumber.

"Would you please stop that?" Dr. Malory cut in, frowning disapprovingly at him. "The chair hasn't done anything to you," she said flatly, looking at his fingers gripping the thin padding on the chair so that it was about crushed flat.

"Why isn't she awake?" he said irritably.

"She passed out...probably a combination of shock and the--" the avian cut off and looked back at her patient.

"The what?" Shadow's tone toward her was dark and scathing.

Malory attempted to ignore it. "Well...her body's going through some changes, that's why she's been dizzy and all."

"What kind?" Shadow asked with no more patience than he had moments ago. He edged his seat closer to Sara.

"Well, I don't have a name for it because I've never seen anything like it but..." Malory paused and looked at the monitors that were currently displaying Sara's vitals. Everything checked out; she was in a deep state of sleep. She looked at the screens more so that she didn't have to look at Shadow. "Well, I think your...physical relations...have created a kind of _imprint._"

"Imprint?" Shadow continued to probe her for information.

"Yes..." She paused and cleared her throat. "Through migration during intercourse, I believe your body has been feeding her a steady stream of mitochondrial DNA. You could say it's a bit more personal than his or hers towels, and slowly, the mitochondria have been either mixing with her own mitochondria, or replacing them. Certain radiations from the sun accelerate the changes, and out here in space, there's not much to block it," the doctor concluded.

Shadow frowned; he didn't like thinking he was the cause of it, though he'd assumed so deep down. It was his negative side that blamed him for everything, but in this case it was likely true. "So what is it doing...? Will she be all right?"

"It's like replacing a watch battery with a car battery," the duck doctor put in thoughtfully. "Your body is extremely efficient at consuming and using energy, part of the reason you can go for days on end without sleep. Sara's body isn't used to that, so while it's converting to the new energy type, her motor skills are impaired. I have seen evidence that her very DNA is, in very minor ways, restructuring to accommodate the mitochondrial DNA."

"So it's changing her..." Shadow's frown deepened.

"Superficially. In the long run it will mean a longer life expectancy, if a little worse in the way of sleeping habits. Physically, I doubt anything will change." Malory then managed a smile. "I think I'm going to call it mitochondrial assimilation. There's actually a certain level of this observable in normal couples, Mobian or otherwise. It doesn't change anything outside the host, but it also seems to facilitate certain receptors toward their partner."

"Hmmm?" He twitched a curious ear at the last part.

"There might be something to the statement about 'you never forget your first love,'" she laughed. "Anyway, she should wake soon, I hope. She told me the symptoms were getting worse, so I think whatever changes are going to happen will be completed soon."

"...Thanks, Doc," Shadow said gratefully.

"Not a problem. You can actually thank Strauf, though; she put me on the right track." Malory grabbed a clipboard off a nearby counter, which also hosted an assortment of cotton balls and various sample jars. She made a couple of notes and then turned to leave. "Well, forgive me, but I have to see a chipmunk about a case of laryngitis. Ta."

Shadow stood up from the padded chair after she left and leaned over his sleeping beauty. He took in a deep breath, his lungs filling with her scent, and the slight acrid bouquet of stale medicines. '_I've been a bad mate, haven't I?'_ He leaned in gently and kissed her forehead. "Sara…."

"Mmmmnnn..."


	8. Moving On

Relief washed over Shadow as Sara's eyes gently fluttered open. His instincts were stronger than his head for a moment, and he was suddenly on the infirmary bed, hovering over her and lightly touching his nose to hers. Before she was fully awake or able to speak, his lips sealed over hers. They stayed like that for a long moment, the heart monitor on the hedgehog skyrocketing from the affection.

There was something comforting about waking up to a wide pair of ruby eyes whose world began and ended with you, and that's how Sara felt when she saw the concern in her love's gaze. "Well good morning..." Sara laughed a little. That certainly was different than what she'd had in mind seconds before losing consciousness. The venom had gone out of the sting with Maria's words, and a certain understanding stuck with her even as the dream began to fade from memory. "I..."

"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have kept Ayame's powers a secret…." Shadow began.

"Yes but…."

"It's no different than you hiding an illness from me, is it?" His tone was full of consideration toward her. He'd become blind to everything in the room but the cielo azul hedgehog lying before him.

"Not so much but..."

"I didn't want you to worry..." He sighed and nuzzled against her cheek. There was so much he wanted to say, and on the rare occasions he felt like talking, there was no stopping him.

"I don't think you should be on the bed…." Sara whispered gently in his ear.

"What?"

Shadow's confusion was only momentary before there was a cough behind him. He didn't turn around; he didn't need to. He could smell the perfume. "Ahem. Well, it's good to see that you respect hospital guidelines _so well,_ Mr. Shadow," a harsh woman's voice spoke up. "There's a lot of surveillance here if you'd like to donate some _breeding_ material to the MRT?"

Shadow's muzzle curled in a sneer at that, glaring at Dr. Strauf when he finally did turn. "What I do with _my_ mate is none of _your_ business."

"I beg to differ, she's my patient as long as she's in _my_ infirmary. I'll thank you to get off the bed now." The human picked up the chart at the end of the bed, reviewing the notes Malory had made on the subject and avoiding eye contact with both hedgehogs. "You're only proving the sentiment many humans hold about your kind, you know."

"What sentiment?" he asked darkly.

"That you're nothing but filthy animals. Hmph. Honestly, I don't know why half my medical education had to revolve around patching up you mongrels..." Strauf said dismissively and double checked the chart against the data feed on the monitors.

Sara decided to act before things got out of hand, noting how dangerously flared Shadow's quills were. She reached out and caught his wrists as he'd begun moving off the bed, though most likely to give Strauf another right hook. "Shadow..." She caught his eyes and her rich coffee eyes held them. There was a wordless exchange between them and the way he lowered his head told her he'd listened. _'He sees me, he really does.'_

"Well, everything looks in order," Strauf continued after receiving no response from either hedgehog. She'd really hoped he'd try to assault her, just one more time. Oh the legal battle...she'd have him put down if she could. _'Just like a dog...damnit...and she's got him trained.'_ "I'll have a nurse come and remove the sensors, then she's free to go."

"Thanks," Sara replied, allowing herself to sit up fully. Something had changed with that dream, and she just generally felt better for some reason.

"You know...we're not going to stay here forever," Shadow said after the doctor had left. "...And I took this job because it pays better...I wouldn't have to work as much either, even when we go back to Earth, there's a lab..."

The female hedgehog turned her head toward Shadow and smiled, a genuine smile that had been absent for some time. "Letting me in on your secrets now?"

"Yeah."

"About Ayame…." Sara began.

"I'd rather she learned to control her powers than have them explode some time unintentionally," he responded instantly.

She nodded. "All right. We'll stay as long as you want, but I demand at least two trips to Japan and a trip to Hawaii for this."

"...You're not mad?" Shadow arched a quizzical brow.

She shook her head, and to her satisfaction, the room failed to spin. "I was, but I think...I think I understand now."

* * *

"Junior! Junior..!" Eggman bellowed, swiftly walking down the inner corridors of his base at the center of the park. He was walking swiftly enough that his usual minions had a hard time keeping up, while his black cane clinked on the metal flooring. The eccentric old man didn't pay them any mind as he muttered under his breath the number of torturous things he'd like to do to his "son" right about now. "**Junior!**"

He swiveled around a fairly tight corridor leading down the hall to his clone's room. The walk down this stretch of complex felt more like walking the last mile in a prison rather than a family friendly environment. The walls were reinforced concrete and the caged flood lighting set at intervals created a rather dark and foreboding passageway between lights.

The mad scientist adjusted his reflective black glasses before entering the teen's room. '_Eight years and I will never get used to this….'_ He cleared his throat. "**Junior!**"

Eggman Junior had grown into a short but lanky teen. At age 14 he was no less a genius than his father, and was actively helping to _improve_ Eggman Amusements. He eyed his "old man" by peering at him over his own set of reflective black lenses. There was a screwdriver in one hand, and the head of Oomochao was lying upside down nearby. Scattered around him were various parts and high gloss car paints, and just in front of him was Oomochao's body.

"Yes...?"

The look in the teen's clear brown eyes disarmed the old man somewhat, but he quickly recovered. "Erm..." Eggman stroked his mustache thoughtfully. He took a quick glance about the room. The PC was devoted to FPS and army games that he greatly enjoyed, his wall adorned with busty, sword swinging women from various games as well. Figured he wouldn't be interested in _real_ women. There were a few half-completed robots scattered around, and he noted Bokkun sitting on the bed cross-legged, looking sympathetic toward the dismantled RoboChao. "I want it back. Now."

"What are you talking about?" Junior replied quickly. He lowered a magnifying glass attached to a headset down over one eye and peered closely at a circuit chip he was about to solder into place on Oomochao.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Junior!" the older human growled fiercely, slamming his cane against the cheap flooring, which chipped on impact.

The boy looked resentfully at the cane. "_Riiight_. Absolutely. Whatever it is? Go ahead, take it back why, doncha?" Junior rolled his eyes and laughed. He then managed to jerk the chip out of reach of Eggman's swinging cane. "Hey! Watch it! Really, I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Really?" Eggman sounded in dubious tones and kicked one of Oomochao's arms aside while making another grab for the chip. "I find that so _hard_ to believe when you're the only one aside me who has the _key_!"

"Key? The only key I have is this." Junior held up what looked like a credit card with his face and ID on it. It was a key card used to access almost every area of the park, with the only exceptions being Eggman's room and personal lab. The digital lockout system could also be customized further, which Eggman had done often to "ground" Junior. It worked pretty well until Queen Sally came to the park with her royal escort; he managed to copy bits of Nicole's data and made a pretty nice virus based on her that he'd used to override curfew lockouts on more than one occasion.

The egg head turned a bit red at that and backhanded the boy. "**Don't play stupid!** You know exactly what's going on! It was _you_ who stole the contents of capsule SCD-V2.9, admit it!"

"_That_ thing?" Junior laughed now, and saved Oomochao's head from a nasty jerk. "Bokkun!" he called irritably and tossed the head to the lax robot. It suddenly went into a panic but caught the head, gulping inwardly that it could be next. Junior was always threatening that way, just like Eggman. "It's a pile of junk! The only thing special about it is the facet for Chaos or Emerald drives."

"And _**that**_ is another matter!" Eggman pushed forward, towering over the boy and poking him in the chest, causing him to back up toward his beloved computer and Lara Croft posters. "It's gone too!"

"W-w-wait...what?" Junior looked genuinely puzzled and managed to grab Eggman's cane as he took a swing at a 25th year commemorative resin statue of the heroine of Tomb Raider. "Why don't you start talking in complete sentences before you go postal, P_ops!_" the teen grumbled, holding his ground against the aging statue.

"The **emerald**, you fool! The red Chaos Emerald!" Eggman finally relented, though he kept eyeing the statue dangerously. Junior was also taking into account his environment, and Eggman wasn't the only one good with firearms. "It took me months to secure it, and now it's gone!"

"Is that all? Dude, I did not take either of them," the redhead said in all seriousness and grabbed a pokémon statue resembling a polywag. He put a finger on its tail. Eggman had seen him use this one before--it had a hypnotizing beam in it. "Keep pressing, and you get to say hi to Polly!"

Eggman grumbled and backed off. "Fine, you're grounded until the culprit's found." He spun quickly, avoiding the beam's contact by a split second. That was one of the "mass hypnosis" ideas that Junior'd come up with but never implemented since it did require a visual side. Still, Eggman Sr. felt an odd inclination to crow at the morning sun whenever someone said the words "corn flakes" and didn't even want to know what else that thing was capable of.

"No way! Dad! That is _so_ not fair!" He stomped a foot on the ground, crushing some piece of circuitry under foot that Bokkun desperately hoped was just a spare part.

"Hmph. Think you can find it?" he asked, twirling his fingers around his now completely gray mustache.

"Yeah. Yeah I do." he replied, striking a very firm pose. He wasn't about to be pushed around...a chip off the old shell. Ha!

"Good...because we're having company." Eggman grumbled.

"Eh? You mean the bat, right?" Junior queried.

"No...I mean the damn hedgehog gang," he replied. "Ahh...too bad I'm not an _evil_ genius anymore, it's a lovely day for a trap.

"Heh...well...you're the one who bargained with blue-boy, not me," the teen retorted. He began musing about exactly what to do next. Oh well, first things first. He turned his head to the scattered metal chao body.

* * *

Aside the gentle hum of the motors and the clicking of the monorail as it zoomed along its track, there wasn't much sound inside the cars today. This was fairly strange just for the cargo it carried toward Eggman Amusements. Sonic was swaying precariously from one of the hand rails overhead and grinning like a lunatic while Amy sat admiring the waves below. Blitz and Rift had come with their mates, and so had Shadow and his family.

Shadow's being quiet was understandable, but there was something somber in the eyes of even the brightest of them. Ayame was sitting by the window on the far end of the shuttle car, her eyes half lidded and listless while Babbit tugged at her hand for some attention. The small chao had grown considerably since she got him. He had a red crest on his chest and red markings, which very much resembled Shadow, with the spikes jutting from its deformed head adding to the hedgehog-like illusion. A pair of phoenix wings on its back and a unicorn-like horn on its forehead made him look more distinguished, while his white and blue eyes glowed eerily under certain conditions. He certainly loved his "mommy" who'd hatched him, and seemed distressed at her lethargy.

"Why don't you pick him up?" Sara suggested, after growing tired of the creature's pleading coos.

"...Maybe," Ayame breathed. She looked a bit disgusted as she glanced out the window. "We shouldn't be going to Eggman Amusements..." She frowned.

"It'll cheer you up." Sara smiled at her girl, no longer so little. Ayame had flourished into a fine looking figure, and her quills had started to turn upward slightly, giving more resemblance to her father. She also needed four limiters as she'd grown into her power, and the items she'd once cursed now seemed suddenly dear to her.

"I don't want to be cheered up…. Isn't it a little soon for...for this?" She waved a hand at the island coming into view.

"Your mother wants to, that's enough," Shadow spoke at last, one arm around his partner. Things had been good between them for quite some time. There was a fresh air between them since the incident on the Ark. As promised, they'd returned to Earth once Ayame and Shadow felt she had a reasonable level of control over her powers, as well as taking a yearly vacation in different parts of Japan. They'd spent the last week on Mobius, however...all of them had.

"I don't feel like playing..." Ayame sighed. "Grandpa's gone." And that was the very reason they'd been on Mobius in the first place. He'd been sick for quite a while, and much like Sara, he was good at hiding it. When they'd gotten there, Ayame attempted to heal it, but it hadn't worked. That stood as the primary reason she was feeling so down at the moment.

"At least you tried to help," Sonic commented, not that he meant to eavesdrop, it was just easy in such cramped conditions.

The young teen wiped away a stray tear, a mixed look in her eyes. "Why?? What good is power if I can't use it to help the ones I care about?!"

"I've ask myself that very question a number of times," Shadow replied softly, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. She started to jerk away as though his touch might hurt, but she couldn't escape his eyes. There was a sort of peace in them, like the center of a storm. "In the end, you can only do so much. Like Sonic said...you tried. Sometimes...that's all you can do."

"Why?!" Ayame asked with mounting frustration. "I have all this power and all it does is hurt people!" She stood up quickly, knocking Babbit aside. The chao began crying and Ayame followed its chorus. "It's not fair...it's not…."

"Ayame..." Shadow started.

"And you don't even care! Grandpa died and you don't care!" the black and red girl snapped.

"Ayame...that's not true," Sara added.

"He didn't care about Grandpa! Did you see him cry? Even Uncle Sonic cried!" the girl replied, her white bangs covering her eyes much like they did her mom's.

"I may not have always seen eye to eye with him...but I honestly saw him as my father, you know," Shadow said seriously.

"I don't believe you!" Ayame returned, sobbing a bit as she did.

It was hard to make things private with everyone seated around the monorail compartment, but Shadow hoped his look would tell the others to back off. It worked for the most part, though all eyes were on them with few exceptions. Rift was asleep leaned against a white hedgehog with pink eyes, and it was his dulled hearing which accounted for why he hadn't been roused. That left Sara, Sonic, Amy, Ash, Tracey, Maria, Chase, Millie, and Gray all staring at him. "Do you mind?" he grunted and the extended family complied.

He knelt by his youngest and put an arm around her and her pet, leaning his forehead against hers softly. "Ayame? You know why I was made? Why I have my powers?"

"...Why?" She sniffed.

"To make others happy. To protect the ones I love," Shadow said in an unusually soft tone. He closed his eyes and thought about the things that gave him strength now. Anger and revenge no longer kindled his fighting spirit as it used to. "And I haven't always succeeded."

"Huh?" Ayame stopped crying and felt her father's arms around her like when she'd wake up from a nightmare years ago. "Dad?"

"I failed to protect Maria, and she meant everything to me once. Part of my being was to cure her from a deadly illness." Shadow shook his head a bit. He could hear talking in the background, mainly Sara getting the others to back off. He heard some suggestion they head into the neighbor car where the other kids were, which would be the rest of the extended family and friends, including Knuckles and Rouge. '_Good going, Sara'_.

"You failed?"

"Yeah. I even forgot who I was, why I was...I almost hurt a lot of people, I did hurt people... If it weren't for second chances, though..." He nuzzled her forehead lightly, comforting. "I don't feel like a failure anymore."

"W-why?" Ayame asked timidly.

"Because...I haven't failed where it counts...protecting you and your mom...I can't stop every bruise, but I can try. And if I can't I can pick up the pieces. You have to learn to move on, even after bad things happen," he finished and pulled away from his daughter, wondering how much of that was overheard, but mercifully found only Sara, Rift, and his mate Yukiko still in the compartment.

"Move on…." Ayame repeated.

"Yeah." Sara smiled. "That's why I think a little fun would do you some good. Try not to mope too much, okay? You scowl like that, your face will freeze like your dad's!"

"Hey!" Shadow gave her a sharp look at that, but she just laughed.

Ayame managed a grin, and paid her pet more attention. "You really think so?"

"Yeah. And we're only a few minutes away from the park now," the sky blue and brown hedgehog replied with a smile.

"We could've gone to Cedar Point, you know…." Shadow commented.

"Yes, but Sonic got us free passes, I can't argue with that," his love said, continuing to smile.

Ayame looked out the window at the amusement park coming into view. It _did_ look like fun. The young, childish side of her decided it might be all right, and Babbit agreed.


	9. Torn Apart

Author's Note: Forgive me if I rattle off too many names in this chapter. There are a lot of characters in play, and I am sectioning them off into groups. Just note that they're all in Sonic's or Shadow's lineage for the most part, or runoff from Tails' line if you see a name and don't recognize it from the Archie Comics. At least the Heroes' kids' names should be familiar if you've been following along since Flirting Shadows. Just briefly I'm going to post the main branches...btw, the child is whatever the mother is. Hope I didn't forget anyone...ha ; This also means I don't have to explain who's who's kid/grandkid YAY!!

Sonic & Amy -- Blitz (mated to Lara-Su) and Rift (married to a white hedgehog with pink eyes from Japan, her name is Yukiko)

Blitz and Lara-Su -- Nothing yet.

Rift and Yukiko -- Aki (son, named after Akiko, Yukiko's closest friend), age 4

Shadow and Sara -- Maria (married Chase; not going there), Ash (mated to Tracey, Tails' daughter), and, of course, Ayame

Maria and Chase -- Chamomile (Mille) and Earl Gray (Gray)

Ash and Tracey -- Alphonse (blue and black twin-tailed fox with amber eyes), age 4

Tails and Fiona -- Kit (his only honorable mention so far lol!) and Tracey (has her mom's coloring, her father's tails, and silver eyes)

* * *

Junior was putting the finishing touches on the new and improved Oomochao shortly before the Sonic Gang was due to arrive in the park. It wasn't uncommon for him and Amy to frequent the park; they had lifetime passes as part of the arrangement made for using his image anyway. Still, Young Eggman was only too eager to finish his project knowing they were on the way. After spraying the last touches of car paint on Oomochao, he fed him through a kind of oven to harden the paint quickly.

While waiting for his creation to dry, he brought up the security cameras mounted inside the monorail cars while Bokkun watched his friend baking and hoped Junior knew what he was doing. Seeing Rouge and Fang in with the crowd was only slightly unusual; another part of the bargain was frequent checkups by the authorities, making sure Eggman Land Amusements remained on the up and up. Since Lilly was out of their nest, they'd both become full time G.U.N. agents. Tails was a natural accompaniment to Sonic, so that was no wonder. It was unusual for Sonic's children to be there, and Blitz and Rift had also brought their mates as well, though the fact Blitz had netted the Guardian's daughter Lara-Su was still of some tabloid interest. To be honest, most of the Freedom Fighter children were living perfectly _normal, boring_ lives worth little account.

The only truly eye-catching occupants to Junior's eyes were Shadow and Ayame. Oh, he'd heard a lot about Shadow, but he had _never_ visited the park. Junior's eyes dismissed Sonic's cousin Sara right off the bat, and even Ash with his black version of Shadow's markings and Maria's presence didn't even phase him; there was _nothing_ significant about any of them or their lives. But there was Ayame, and a few trickled (hacked) reports from Shadow's time on the refurbished Ark gave the young genius reason to suspect Ayame packed every bit as much of the punch as her old man.

'_That would be interesting,'_ he thought inwardly. He recalled Eggman's respect and admiration for Grandfather Gerald's ultimate creation. He also knew quite well what he was capable of, and very probably his daughter, judging by the limiter bands around her wrists and ankles. '_And freak begets freak.'_ Young Eggman adjusted his glasses and contemplated a meeting with either dark hedgehog. Knowing Shadow, he'd be immediately wary...but his daughter...

The ding of a timer soon told him that the paint job was now finished. "Awesome!" He whirled about and headed to inspect his re-creation.

* * *

Somewhere in the park, Metal Sonic was walking down one of the thruways. There were tons of souvenir shops lining the area, as well as some eating areas and junk food stands--not that he needed to eat, though he did wish he had less sensitive hearing as he passed a karaoke stand with the lettering "Be a Star!" across it. _'Yeah right...'_ he thought and sighed as he caught sight of a rather large crowd ahead of him. It was protocol to entertain groups of people over a certain number, but...he didn't _feel_ like entertaining them now.

After a few loops, runs, and dashes, mirroring the real Sonic's moves, Metal headed to one of the less-traveled paths of the park. He stopped between two of the live entertainment buildings leading into an alleyway meant for the cleaning robots. At last, he felt like he could take a breather, metaphorically speaking, of course.

Yes, _feeling._ As a robot, he shouldn't feel, at least not outside of his programming. When Metal was first released into the park, he was little more than a drone; in fact, this was the original Eggman Land edition Sonic robot. There were at least a dozen others now throughout the park, and Sonic enjoyed taunting them and sometimes causing one or two of them the need to be extensively repaired, but this one was somehow different. Eggman had invested time in his upkeep and repairs, and while his initial build was quite shoddy and cheap, he'd been slowly replaced, part by part, with better material. He even _liked_ the sleek blue-chrome design he now held; it was just...classic.

Metal was quickly coming to the decision that he needed the Master to run a check or two on his mental pathways. There was something seriously wrong with him, and he didn't know what. All self-diagnostics turned up negative...so why the restless feeling? Thinking about it, he had come across this feeling before. It was the last two times Sonic had paid a visit.

_'Hey, Tin Grin! Wanna race?'_

Metal had remained resolutely silent that time, but he _wanted_ to race. Even moreover, he _wanted_ to win. When did he start feeling these things? Feelings were reserved for better robots, not the actors, not the entertainment, not the cleanup... _Why?_

His metallic red eyes saw a crowd begin to form by a nearby fountain, and he retreated further into the alleyway so he wouldn't see them. He couldn't perform right now; at least, he wouldn't. Did he really have a will? _Humor, so illogical...so illogical._ Then, something dawned on the robot. _'I'm missing something.'_

He didn't know what it was, but he knew it related to _who_ he was. _Just a copy? Is that all that I am? A copy? A fake? I...am...Metal Sonic... I am...I am...I...exist. I,'_ Metal Sonic stopped cold; there was some_thing_ behind him.

"So, you're the original, aren't you?" came a cold, metal voice dark with malice. It was another Metal Sonic, but not one of Eggman's. It was taller, with a sleek design and far more menacing spray of metal quills. Its eyes glowed in the dim lighting of the alley, and somehow that made the smaller Metal _afraid._

"Who made you? Why are you here?" Metal responded in a tone somewhat deeper than Sonic's.

"Doesn't matter... You're quite obsolete, aren't you?" it said, raking a clawed metal hand against the side of the nearest building. It was then that Metal Sonic caught sight of something in its other hand...a head...one of the other Metal Sonic's heads…. "Doubt you'll be any harder to take down," it replied in what could only be described as a smug tone.

Metal backed up a few steps, calculating what to do next, but there was a _gut feeling_ that he wouldn't like what was about to happen, and there was little he could do to avoid it. "Why do you want me? Why did you destroy that Metal Sonic?"

"I need something from you before I'm whole." It tilted its head to the side and eyed the robot's chest...about where the power supply should be.

"You'll never..."

* * *

The monorail cars came to a stop over the platform, and soon the group of hedgehogs and other Mobians had exited to cheering fans. Of course, Sonic's arrival always attracted extra large crowds, so even the security cameras had a hard time picking up on the group. Junior was watching the whole thing from his own floating Egg Craft, and rather interested on which directions the former heroes would go in.

As predicted, the fastest, most adrenaline-addicted junkies were heading off to the thrill rides. This meant that Sonic and his two sons, as well as Ash and Shadow's in-law Chase, were all bound for the coasters with Lara-Su, Tails, and Amy in tow. Amy was trying desperately to tug Sonic toward the Tunnel of Love or the paddle boats, but even if he could swim, he wasn't fond of water and...well…Sonic in a Love Tunnel? Two words for that, Hell and No. Rouge and Nack were ready for some live (or robotic) entertainment, so they quickly parted company with the group. Sara didn't stick with Shadow, surprisingly enough, and went with Yukiko and her son Aki to the China Egg section of the park, which was actually predictable. Mille and Gray decided to stick with Fiona, Tracey, and Alphonse.

Shadow was left on the platform with Maria and Ayame, and what he chose to do would now affect Junior's plans for the immediate future.

"Shouldn't you be trying to...oh...I don't know...catch the guy who stole the emerald and Metal Sonic's parts out from under you?" Bokkun inquired, floating nearby.

"Hmph," Junior replied with a shrug. "Maybe. But I bet I could get him faster with a little help."

"Ohhh! So that's what you're doing?" Oomochao asked, floating next to him on the other side. He no longer had a wind-up looking propeller on his head. The robot, though he retained a slightly clockwork appearance, was now black and red chrome with pale white orbs; honestly he looked frightening with the paint job. All he needed now was a pair of devil horns. This probably wouldn't be the last of Junior's upgrades. He was bigger than a baby chao, and the source of his flying was now a pair of radiant thrusters in his back for forward momentum and glowing red thrusters on his heels for lift. The ones on his back somewhat resembled blue translucent wings when engaged.

"Yeah. Unlike my old man, I think I'll see how well it pays off using their talents instead of fighting it." The teen smiled.

"So who could've broken in? Eggman said only you had the key..." Bokkun continued.

"Well, actually, they were locked with DNA scanners...that means someone got some hair off one of us or something...or…." Junior smiled widely as he saw the black and red hedgehogs finally move. To his surprise, Shadow chose to stick with the midnight blue and reddish-brown haired hedgehog rather than his twin of a daughter.

She didn't want to be there anyway, so what did _she_ care that Shadow was spending his day in the park with _Maria_? Just because she was older? Not that Shadow would have liked to admit it, but he did have a certain fondness for his eldest, and he seldom got to see her now that she lived on Mobius. Maria was also very sweet and kind, much like her namesake, so he just couldn't pass up the chance to be with her for the day. Besides, it was Ayame's own fault she was now heading into the park alone; Mille and Gray had been vehement about tagging along and she'd refused.

That settled, Junior brought his craft down to street level and hopped out, keeping an eye on the female hedgehog the whole time. He pressed a button sequence on his watch and the vehicle began its return to the "special parking unit." Nonchalantly he entered the flow of the crowds, taking note that Ayame didn't seem too thrilled about being there; he could totally relate.

"Hi," he said at last with his hands in his pockets and the friendliest smile he could muster to the shorter Mobian.

She quickly darted a look up at him and locked onto his syrup-brown eyes with her brick red ones. He about flinched at the hardness of her gaze, but she realized quickly that she'd been glaring and looked aside. _'I am not my father….'_

"Umm..." Junior coughed. "I said...hi."

"H-" Before she could get further than that, Bokkun flew down between them annoyingly.

"Hey! Don't ignore the Master! Do you know who you're talking to?! Show some respect, why don't yaa--AAA!" The little robot squealed as Junior not so kindly batted him aside.

"Sorry about that," Junior laughed...and made a mental note to be more violent toward him later. "Robots...heh."

Ayame stood there for a second, placing him a very odd and confused look now, quite a contrast from the initial greeting. "...Right."

"I'm..." The young genius paused. _'The great and powerful Eggman! ...Junior...crap.'_ "I'm Julian. Nice to meet you." He recovered his smile, his pearly whites glinting in the afternoon sun, and offered her a handshake.

Ayame kept a skeptical brow raised at his offered hand, but took it. "Ayame," she replied simply. _'Oh High One...I am turning into my father...blast it!'_ "So…uh...?"

"Oh, I know your father...at least I'm assuming…." he continued, smiling. Technically, he _did_ know her father, though the other way was only half mutual in a sense. "Can I show you around?"

Ayame ran her fingers through her white puffy bangs and thought about it. _'Maybe I should've stuck with Dad...'_ She gave Junior a once over. The human was still taller than her, though she could tell he was short for his age. Well...Shadow did trust her to take care of herself; no harm, right? "Okay."

* * *

Deep in an underground portion of the park, someone else was watching the whole series of events and grinning to himself. He stroked a wiry gray mustache and laughed. _'Too easy!_' _It was all too easy, wasn't it_? _If those fools had just taken me with them to the future...none of this would be happening right now._' Nega laughed.

The sound of metal footsteps reached his ears, and he swiveled in his chair to get a good look at his minion. "Ahh...Metal 3. I see you were successful?"

"Yes, Master," the robot Sonic said, kneeling before Eggman Nega and offering the mangled leftovers of the park's first Metal Sonic.

"Good...and you even left the parts I wanted undamaged...how considerate," the mad scientist said with a certain amount of glee. "Eggman's finished...I'll take this **entire** place down, ha ha ha! And it's that foolish boy who made it all possible!"


	10. Real Misadventures

Junior took Ayame for a walk around the park with Bokkun and Oomochao floating behind. Their conversation was casual, and Junior turned out to be quite charming. The original Eggman fancied himself something of a gentleman, so that naturally flowed through his clone. That somehow fused with his unique charisma, completely disarming any walls she might have had if he'd introduced himself as Eggman Junior right away.

Ayame stopped down one of the thruways filled with cheap carnival games. Her sudden halt didn't escape Junior, who attempted to find out what exactly had caught her eye. Girls could be peculiar, Junior knew, so naturally Shadow's daughter should be no exception. Her piercing jewel-red eyes darted over the carnival goods, the gaudy fake beads, the huge stuffed animals. She glanced over the various games, her mind calculating the odds for each. A smile drew on her face as she targeted one of the simplest carnival games: dart throwing.

"Why stop here?" Junior asked after a minute. He didn't particularly think the prizes were that good either. Then again, being technical owner and true heir to the whole place, he was quite familiar with the crap they peddled to their customers.

"Oh...just something Mom told me once." The grin spread. "She said that no matter what carnival or park she visited, she always had to play the balloon popping game at least once."

"Your...mom?" The young Eggman raised a bristly red brow. Actually, he hadn't thought much about the crimson and black hedgehog's mother. Until now, he'd actually only thought about Shadow. '_How amusing...now why didn't I think about this sooner?'_ he thought. Somehow there was a complete disconnect with him at the concept of a mother. Perhaps it came from being a clone, a created thing, like Shadow.

Ayame nodded in reply and stepped up to the stand. Somehow, she'd relaxed notably and her eyes were only scanning for the right prize. "Three darts, please!"

"Hey uh...my treat!" Junior cut in, breaking his own train of thought. He recovered his composure and adjusted his black lenses.

"Thanks," Ayame responded, finally settling on what she felt was a suitable prize. As soon as the darts were in hand, she was calculating their weight and eyeing a well blown up blue balloon.

"So umm...tell me about your mom?" Eggman's young clone found himself asking. '_This is totally irrelevant to what you want from her, Junio--Eggman!'_

"Well..." Ayame flicked her wrist and a satisfying pop entered her ears as the point hit its mark. _'Bullseye. Two more...'_ "She likes Chinese food, loves sushi, blurts out Japanese phrases randomly, plays video games, and as Dad puts it, she's 'hell-bent' on making him socialize. That's kind of why we're here, actually…."

Bokkun was watching the exchange while floating upside down for no particular reason. He gave a yawn and glanced at his reconstructed friend. "Wonder how long this is going to go on..."

Oomochao shrugged. "Dunno... She's not even robotic." He turned his head to the left and saw a small black and red figure approaching the group. "Hey! What's that?" He tugged at Bokkun and made him face the creature.

"Oh...that's a real chao...dark type...I think that thing was in one of the rail cars," he recalled, but only because Junior had mentioned it while he was freaking out about Oomochao in the paint oven.

"A real one?" the metal mockery responded in amusement.

Eventually Babbit made his way over to his "mother" around the time of her tenth throw. "Chaoo!" he cooed happily. His little voice didn't make it past the noises of the crowds and the yells of the stall operators beckoning people to spend their money and waste their time. He also failed to break Ayame's state of concentration until his little arms wrapped around her ankle.

"EeeeK!" she squealed and her jaw dropped, thinking about the probably botched throw more than the fact she had just kicked the chao away. After a quick and confusing moment, several things happened. Firstly, the dart struck its target. Second, Junior quickly responded to Ayame's cry by helping her right herself. Third, she realized what had happened; she was a rather bad "mom" forgetting her "baby" like that. "Babbit!" Finally, she missed the stall robot calling that she'd won a prize.

"Bab--wha?" Junior looked down at the pale-eyed chao that was now crying and that the hedgehog had scooped into her arms.

"Babbit! My pet!" She smiled and stroked his head, then frowned apologetically to her little angel.

"Miss...? Your prize?" the robot queried.

"Isn't she cute? I got her for my fourth birthday, so she's been with me since," Ayame boasted. Babbit relaxed as he was lavished with attention.

"Your...prize?" it tried again.

"Yeah...cute..." the boy replied, though he was still confused himself as to what was going on. Somehow he'd gone from trying to manipulate Ayame into helping him emerald hunt to following _her_ whims around the park.

"Ma'am! Will you please pick a prize?!" the stall attending robot finally let out in what sounded like exasperation.

"Oh! Right!" Ayame laughed. She picked up a light blue and white duffle bag, one of the most practical prizes in the lot, a couple of plush toys of her father, Silver holding a clear plastic ball, and Sonic, and stuffed them in the bag followed by Babbit and slung the bag over her shoulder. The robot was about to object but Junior cut him with a glance. Babbit then poked his head out of the bag happily and watched the park from his new point of view. Eventually he was just having fun making faces at Bokkun.

"You're so weird…." Junior commented as they started walking away from the stall.

The hedgehog girl shrugged. "You know...maybe Mom was right..."

"Huh?"

"Maybe being here is a good thing...I am feeling better," Ayame commented evenly and compensated for the added weight of Babbit and the bag while they walked. She inclined her head his way and took on a mature tone, "Thanks."

'_Thanks….'_ The words repeated in his head and left him dumbfounded before he found himself falling behind. "Hey! Wait up!"

* * *

"Eggman-Sama! Eggman-Sama!!" the gold robot Decoe shouted, racing up to the rotund scientist at full speed.

"Big trouble! Really biiig trouble!" Bocoe added hastily.

"**What is it!?"** the elderly scientist bellowed at them, though he was surprised by the pieces of blue scrap they were carrying. _'What in the world…?'_ He braced himself, leaning heavily on his cane for support.

"Eggman-Sama..." Bocoe's voice was deep with concern.

"Someone's tearing apart all the Metal Sonics!" Decoe added, "We..." his voice strained with terror, "we found this in an alley…." The two hesitantly offered the body.

"How do you know it's all of them?" The doctor frowned deeply; this wasn't Sonic's style.

"We tried to contact them..." Decoe began.

"...None of them responded, Your Lardness! I mean...Largeness!"

Eggman pivoted on his heel and moved quickly toward the central chamber of the park. "This had better not be one of Junior's pranks!" he snarled and bolted for his main computer. From there, he could see any of the security videos. His eyes narrowed upon entering, though, noting the monitors around him showing static. Something was wrong..._very wrong._ "He wouldn't be this stupid…." Eggman muttered. Cautiously he approached his big reclining chair and sat down in it, his fingers grazing over twin keyboards at his wrists. _'It can't be Sonic either...he only just arrived...'_

"Eggman-Sama?" Decoe inquired timidly.

Eggman maintained a grim expression, even as the monitors flicked on one by one at his command. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary...Sonic was racing his coasters as were his brats and Shadow's kid Ash...that was nothing new. The scientist wrinkled his face in disdain. Shadow was being his usual reserved self, though in black and white, he honestly couldn't tell that he was looking at Shadow and Maria waiting in line for the Ferris wheel rather than Shadow and Sara. The only other couple he cared to look in on were Rouge and Nack, who were seated inside one of his theaters, watching some dancing robots.

Just before he could lock in on Junior's location, the master screen, larger than the others, connected to another video feed. Green light cast a sickening hue on the sinister reflection of Eggman, and beyond him, the visage of Metal was slightly visible. "Why good day, Doctor! So glad to see you're in good health," Nega mocked with a snide grin on his face.

"...Nega..." Eggman's expression sank lower. "What the hell have you done?"

"Oh, nothing yet," he replied dismissively, though his grin widened.

"Destroying my worker robots?! _You call that 'nothing?!'"_ Eggman fumed, his face beginning to turn a wonderful shade of red.

"Make an omelette, break a few eggs." Nega shrugged. "And I've made a pretty good one this time, don't you think?" He placed his foot against the desk before him and pushed the modified office chair back so he could have a good look at the robot. "This is Metal Sonic 3.3. I built him in the future, but that Blaze destroyed him." He snorted at that. "I do hope you'll forgive me, but he needed to borrow a few things from your little toys."

The color drained from the original Eggman's face as it dawned on him what that was. The parts that had been sitting in SCD V2.9's capsule were the casing needed for housing an emerald, and one of the park Sonics had the system needed for avoiding an overload. He had a sneaky suspicion of where exactly the stolen red emerald was. "Metal Sonic..._you..._"

Nega laughed, "Oh, it gets better. Do you know where I am at this moment?"

"What are you playing at?" Eggman insisted, hoping he could put up a front masking his nervousness. Granted, he hadn't exactly built the park Sonics for combat, but the fact Nega had obviously been running around the park like this made him suddenly fearful. _What_ exactly had he been up to? How long had this been going on?

"I'm in an underground lair your son made." He smiled brightly. "Smart boy...genius, really. I'm guessing you didn't think I'd go along with you forever, so you wanted someone more malleable to your will?" Nega propped his head up on his hand, leaning on the armrest, and kicked his feet up casually while now holding a remote in his free hand. "Want to see what else he's been up to?"

_'I don't think I'm going to like the answer to that question...'_ "Still thinking of world domination? Well, good luck, there's even more of Sonic's kind of brats running around, and they're all here at the park as we speak!"

Nega laughed once more, his face partly hidden in shadow, giving him a most demonic look as the green light reflected off his glasses. "No." He responded in such a flat and serious tone, it gave sharp contrast to his maniacal laughter moments ago. "What I want is revenge now. See...not only did you send me to the future…you also betrayed me with our last bargain." He shrugged. "As for Sonic and his _friends_? I know all about that. I've been watching, Doctor. I know none of their children pose the kind of threats their aging parents do, and the heroes themselves are losing their skills. You've all been far too complacent, but not me...not Junior. I'm going to destroy the park, Eggman. I'm going to take it down...all of it, and _**you**_ with it."

"Nega! You can't possibly--" Eggman rose, his outrage squelched as the screen abruptly cut out. Around the central lab, capsules were opening. His own robots...turning on him. What bitter irony.

"Hold us, Eggman!" Decoe pleaded.

"We're scared!" Bocoe finished.

* * *

Out in the bright sunshine of day, nobody in the park could suspect what was going on. Nobody had the slightest inkling anything was amiss, or that a day of fun and excitement would be filled with far more of the latter than anyone would like. But nothing had happened yet...nothing obvious. So what if a few park extras were now scraps being swept up by maintenance robots? Nobody would ever notice it was out of the ordinary.

"Did you have to pick such a lame ride?" Shadow asked gently as he and Maria took their places on the swaying seats.

"Lame?" The indigo hedgehog placed her father with a slight pout. "I don't think so."

"I do," he responded dully. At the peak of the wheel's height, he could discern Sonic about fifty yards away, running backward on the track of one of the roller coasters. He snorted at that '_Typical.'_

Maria saw it too and laughed. "At least someone's having fun."

As the wheel rose to its peak a second time, Shadow noted two flashes of purple and one sky and black streak speed by; he groaned. "Looks like they got Ash in on it too…."

Maria leaned against her dad and laughed, "Lighten up! We're at a park."

Shadow sighed a bit and put an arm around his little girl. He wondered if the human Maria would have been like her if she'd had a chance to grow up, but he knew she'd want him to relax too. "Because of your mother...not me...I think I have to agree with Ayame...coming here wasn't a great idea."

The wheel came to a stop about one-third of the way down to let passengers on before she responded, "And I agree with Mom, it's a good idea. You're the stick in the mud who doesn't like being spontaneous and having fun."

"I like having fun," he said with a scowl.

Maria tried to keep from snickering. "Yeah, you _really_ look like it." The grin on her face was all too close to Sonic's, and as a matter of fact, he'd caught sight of them.

"I--" Shadow was about to protest when their seat suddenly shook from the force of a hedgehog landing on it, his hands gripping the safety bar and a wide smile on his cream muzzle. "...Sonic..." Shadow grumbled.

"Hiya, Cuz!" The blue blur smiled broadly. He turned to Maria with an equally wide smile. "How ya guys doing?"

"Oh good!" Maria responded as another thunk hit their seating from behind. One of the ride bots was now yelling at Sonic and Ash, while Rift and Blitz had helped themselves to an empty gondola above them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times!" Ash said in a very important tone. "Do try to ignore the flying hedgehog brothers as they perform death-defying stunts before your very eyes!"

"Yes...please..." Shadow looked up at his son; a wild look was in Ash's eyes, one he hadn't seen before. '_Damnit…this is what I get for letting them socialize with Sara's half of the family.'_ "Son...don't encourage him...High One's sake...please don't..."

"Aww come on!" Sonic pleaded. "We were just going to have you two go for a spin!" Ash nodded vehemently.

"We don't want--" But before Shadow could object, Sonic and Ash were both bracing their legs on the metal seating, and the two of them began spinning the gondola faster and faster. For Shadow, even this was a bit much, and Maria was now clinging to her father for dear life and had her eyes shut tight. "**Chaos Control!"**

Once the world had slowed down to a manageable level, Shadow took Maria to an empty seat on the wheel and set her down gently. "Wait here," he said softly, then turned his attention back to his son and _that hedgehog._ When time resumed its normal course, Sonic and Ash were the ones spinning out of control as the gondola ripped off its hinges and the bottom mysteriously dropped out of the bottom of Blitz and Rift's seat. "Sorry, I think we'll have to find another ride," he said calmly to Maria, a smile curling his lips upward.

"I think I was wrong... You can have fun." Maria paused a moment. "Torturing Sonic."

At last, Shadow managed a laugh. "You know he deserved it."

"Maaaybe." Maria shook her head. "Well, what next? The paddle boats?"

Shadow thought about it while the ride bots were busy trying to calm down the other people on the ride and finding out what the contents were of Rift's and Blitz' stomachs. "Yeah. Sonic wouldn't be caught dead near water." Figuring the robots would be a while before they let anyone off the ride now, he decided to manually leave with Maria in his arms.


	11. Ominous Clouds

"Rrrr...I can't believe we lost them!" Amy growled bitterly while she, Tails, Lara, and Chase walked through the Wild Wild Egg section of the park.

"I can," Lara replied, rolling her eyes.

"Want me to check for 'em?" Tails suggested. "You know I can get a bird's eye view." He smiled widely.

Chase shook his head and laughed. "Man, I wish I had my Gear with me right now, I'd be causin' hell too."

"It's not funny!" Amy snorted. "They just...took off without us!" Despite years of living with the restless cobalt hero, Amy'd never gotten used to his impulses.

"You know, we could go on the Mine Car coaster, bet Sonic would race that," Chase suggested.

"I don't want him racing coasters! I want him...I want him…." Amy cut off.

"How about you try calling him?" Tails suggested, holding up his own cell phone.

Amy's green eyes had a fire behind them, and far be it for anyone to try and douse it. "I'm not stupid!" was her only reply to that. Pride was what kept her from picking up her phone and dialing, but by the time they'd passed the glass blowing studio and the blacksmith, she was back to moping. As well, the sky had started growing cloudy and a few drops landed on her face and ears. "This sucks..." She frowned.

"Come on, Amy," Tails said with his usual light tone, his eyes shining. "You know Sonic doesn't like the rain, so we can contact him while we have a rest and some fried cheese sticks, okay?"

Amy smiled a little bit at that and followed the group into Lusty Lil's Saloon. Rouge and Nack were taking in a performance there and the two were bickering over something or other. _'Well, looks like we're not alone, at least.' _"Nack! Rouge!" the pink hedgehog called cheerfully, determined not to let Sonic spoil her day any more.

"Well hello, Amy..." Rouge started, then nodded greeting to the others as well. "Come for the crappy entertainment?"

"Actually...more to get out of the rain," Chase said as he took a seat. "...And hope Sonic drops in so Amy can stop fuming," he added. The orange hedgehog ran his fingers through his quills, then flicked the water that ran off at the bat to make the point. The boys all laughed at that.

Lara-Su stood by the wooden table, the last to take a seat. She kept a hand on the back of the chair and scanned the old-fashioned saloon setting warily. Something in her lavender eyes was tense, focused. She didn't realize she was standing there so still, but she could definitely _feel_ something. It was a familiar energy. _'An emerald...?'_

"Lara? Ya there? Earth to Lara, wakey wakey!" Nack put in, but then he felt something too. He turned his head toward the robots on stage where the robots had abruptly stopped their routine. The player piano's saloon ballads continued, but the robots almost seemed to have stopped. "Guys...I just got a bad feeling about this." His hand absently strayed to the holster for his gun, and a few seconds later; boy did he need it. "GET DOWN!"

A shoot-out began at the old saloon while the China-Egg was experiencing its own "technical difficulties." The Metal Dragon roller coaster, it turned out, now lived up to its name. The twisting metal Leviathan had suddenly woken from its "slumber," you might say, causing the structure that previously held it up to shake and crumble. The ground shook, and metal pipes and bolts hit the ground thunderously.

The creature roared and quickly began devastating the area. It was like many depictions of Chinese dragons, long, thin, with small limbs and a crazy face, and breathing flame. One of its large metal feet crashed down on a sushi cart Sara had only moments before been looking over.

Sara and Yukiko, along with others in the area, were now trying to flee the giant metal tyrant. "Great...where's Godzilla when you need him?!" Sara called out in her panic. She was trying to fiddle with her phone, but she had a pretty good idea Shadow knew what was up. At the moment, she was only interested in showing Yukiko how closely she and Sonic were related. Strength wasn't an issue, as most Mobians could lift more than one would think, so carrying her like a football, the sky blue hedgehog began her run. She proved her lineage with speed that certainly surpassed the others trying to flee, her short sprint a mere 60 mph.

Shaken, the two hedgehogs stopped by the sumo stage, a worried look crossing both their faces. "C'mon...pick up...pick up..." Sara muttered, somewhat out of breath and finally hearing her cell ring out. Well, she was picked up...and so was Yukiko...by a rotund robot who served as the amateur sparring partner in the "Be a Sumo" contest. "AAAahahhh!" Sara shrieked, dropping her cell phone in panic.

_"Hello...? Hello?"_ Shadow's voice came through, just before it landed in the mud.

* * *

Lightning flashed ominously across the sky. The sunny day had suddenly grown dark, and a chill wind passed through the park. The sounds of cheering crowds were now the retreating screams of frightened masses. The ground shook as the larger metal monstrosities awoke one by one. Park robots who usually took tickets or watched rides were now part of making those rides into weapons, or carrying their own firearms, adding to the widespread panic.

Eggman huffed as he rounded a corner as quickly as his legs would carry him. The cane he'd carried was no longer acting as a crutch. Instead, the egg portion of it had been transformed into a kind of handle, and the other end had also reconfigured to the end of a gun barrel. The laser passed through several prisms before leaving the chamber, dividing and then refocusing its power, so the robot chasing him got struck by it and quickly felt the burn. He aimed for the power supply, rupturing it so the chaos drive quickly exploded.

"Ahhh! Watch where you're pointing that thing!" Decoe begged.

"Shut it!" Eggman snarled. "**Junior!!**" He caught sight of him a few yards away by another of the rides that had come to life: a creature that was now trying to maim people with what used to be seats.

The youth seized up at the call from his elder. He didn't turn around. Instead, he stood there, watching, clinging to a blue and white duffel bag.

"Junior! I know you're not deaf! Just what the hell is going on here!? I demand you--" His jaw dropped as he looked up at the monster bearing down on them.

Ayame was fighting it. She'd learned well from her dad, using homing attacks and series of kicks and hits. The ruby-eyed hedgehog fought it viciously, going for the weak joints first. When it fell over, she spread both arms toward it and yelled "**Chaos Jolt!"** Certainly enough power flowed from her fingertips to fry the robot, enough power to light up Eggman Land in its entirety for that matter.

"...I see you're making friends," Eggman commented.

"Young Master! We were so worried!" Decoe started but was quickly cut off.

"Master?" Ayame said quizzically.

Junior sighed. 'C_aught between an Egg and a hard place...'_ He smoothed back his red hair and turned to his father and what could somewhat be called a friend. "Yeah...'Master'... Ummm, Ayame? I'm Junior...Eggman Junior. Julian is technically my name but…." He gave attention to the bald scientist. "Looks like someone's using my inventions…."

"Wait...inventions? Julian? What are you talking about?" the young dark hedgehog continued questioning him.

"Sorry, Ayame..." Junior replied. "I'm...I'm Eggman's son...and clone really." He scratched behind his head and made an embarrassed smile. "I've kinda been, well...retooling the park...heh."

"'Retooling'? ...Hmph... That's putting it mildly. Nega wants to destroy _everything_. How do we stop it?" Eggman put in.

"Wait! If you're Eggman then...you're the bad guy?" the young hedgehog asked of her new friend.

Junior shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know yet. I swear I hadn't really thought about doing this...yet." His cheeks turned red. He could see a host of robots coming down the thruway. _'Great.'_ "As for stopping it? Oomochao! Gimme a report, will ya?"

"Junior...this is no time for games!" Eggman grimaced.

"All the rides are awake now," Oomochao began. "If you're interested in the Sonic crew, most of them are busy trying to get people out of the park to safety. Sonic and his kids are tangled up trying to deal with the Gravitronik."

"How does he know this?" Eggman asked.

"Because I have him patched into my sub-net," Junior replied and began walking.

"What about my mom and dad?" Ayame asked directly to Oomochao. "Ash? Maria?"

He seemed different when he accessed Junior's sub-net, his eyes glowing mysteriously. "Your mother is caught up in China Egg, a Sumo-bot has her. Your brother is trying to help Rift attack Gravitronik…. I don't know about your father or sister."

"Nega's in my lab, isn't he?" Junior sighed wearily. '_This is years of setback...now I see why Pops retired.'_

"Yes," Eggman and Oomochao said at the same time.

Junior glanced back at Oomochao and saw Ayame starting to bolt. "Hey! Ayame! Wait!"

"But my family's in trouble!" she replied with a sincere, troubled look in her jeweled eyes. The horde of robots wasn't getting any further away either.

"Yeah! And we can help them out if you get us to the Master Controls!" Eggman Jr. said firmly.

Ayame took a look at the advancing robots, and then at the two Egg men. Did they really need her help? "Don't suppose you guys can take care of this, do you?"

Eggman remained silent, though he had a disappointed frown. Junior sighed. "Please, Ayame." He held out a hand, imploring her to stay with them. Sure, the two geniuses had their share of weapons scattered through the park, but until they could get to them... "It's the best way to help them. Please."

Ayame's ears folded back as she accepted Junior's hand. "Okay. Just tell me what I can do." At last, her power could be put to good use. But it remained to be seen how well Junior would handle it, and Eggman was paying very close attention indeed.

* * *

Gravitronik, as its name suggested, was a gravity-based robot. He was one of the larger rides in the park apart from the coasters. Usually, he opened up to allow people in, and once inside, he would spin and sway, centrifical force pinning them to the walls. In his fully realized form, that part was true, but he could also generate his own gravity fields. Inside his chest, he was carrying Blitz and a number of other passengers while outside, he had Sonic weighed down on the ground.

"This is bad..." Rift muttered softly. The lightning strikes did little for his ability to hear as Ash attempted to shout commands to him. Teamwork was not so hot at the moment.

He saw the giant robot about to squish his dad and acted without thinking. His legs carried him right into the energy field that had caught Sonic. Suddenly, his body felt heavy and he fell to his knees. Just a couple feet away from him, Sonic was kneeling, his teeth gritted in a forced smile while he attempted to fight the gravity well.

"Some piece of work, eh?" he grunted. Of course, the giant foot coming down was no comfort. The Chaos Flash that diverted it and caused the robot to wobble was, however.

Ash stopped beyond the field and looked at it a moment. He'd never used Chaos Control to affect gravity, but it was worth a shot. "Need a hand?"

"Don't be so cocky, Ash, you're just a faker made by a faker!" Sonic smirked, even after the Chaos Control released them from the field. Sonic's muscles sighed in relief as they were freed from the intense pressure. "All we gotta do is take it down. I have a feeling the hands are where the gravity generators are...so..."

"We take 'em out, we're good." Ash nodded. He looked over at Rift, who was eyeing its chest cavity. "Hey, bud, you take the center, I'll take the left, and Sonic can take the right. Good plan?"

Rift nodded but Sonic laughed, "Yeah yeah, okay, Faker, let's go!" Sonic hadn't had this much fun in _years_. His body would be screaming at him for the way he struggled against the gravity well, but who cared? He was running, he was back in action, he was--just tackled away from the bot's wrist by a very hard blue metal body. "The hell!?"

"Funny you should mention fakers..." Metal 3.3 said slyly.


	12. Stormy Battles

Wooden boards splintered as a black and red ball of quills broke through the top housing for the paddle boat corral. Rather, it was more of a paddle bot corral at the moment. He grunted and sped away from it with Maria held in his arms. A series of lasers issued out the roof and a number of explosions.

_'Damn Eggman.' _"Shit, lost my cellphone..." He snorted at that; Sara was in trouble...that much he knew. Her and how many others?

"Want to use mine?" Maria offered meekly.

"Just hang on," he replied, catching sight of a rampaging dragon not too far away.

"You sure? I can run too, you know…." she said softly.

Shadow glanced at his girl briefly as he jumped onto the tail of the dragon and started up its metal spine. A number of small flying cameras that had been floating around the park were now armed with lasers and blades and were now attempting to protect the dragon from Shadow, their mistake as he let flashes of Chaos Fire reach them. "Yeah but...I think it would be safer this way."

* * *

Sonic's body slammed into the wet, muddy ground that now coated the park, and he had only moments to throw his arms up over his head before they impacted a metal pole connected to one of the café tents. Metal had let momentum do its work and he now stood poised on a sign post glaring down at the cobalt hero. Sonic grunted and pulled himself to his feet as quickly as he could. He shook off the mud clinging to his quills and glared up at his adversary, getting ready to bolt and accounting for the lost traction the muddy turf offered.

"Come for a rematch, Metal? Sorry! I got bigger fish to fry." Sonic laughed, his emerald eyes daring no more than a glance at the shape of Gravitronik behind him. The double team didn't work as well as they'd hoped, and Sonic was sure they needed help.

"Somehow I doubt that." Metal 3 shrugged mechanically. He glanced behind them at the robot as well. "So, that's the son I almost snuffed out, eh? I think I'll finish the job this time..."

Sonic's quills bristled at that. "You're not hurting _my son_!" Blind rage always made Sonic react faster, and his sneaker-clad feet ground into the earth, almost willing there to be a firm spot to support them. At the first sign of resistance, his muscles recoiled like a spring and launched him toward his foe. Sonic's forward momentum changed sharply as he rolled into a spiked ball, his quills grabbing the sign post and shooting him upward.

Metal laughed and dodged out of the way easily, a bright red shot of energy firing from his eyes and striking the hero.

"Gah!"

While this was going on, Ash and Rift had regrouped, trying to maneuver around the gravity fields that had paralyzed Sonic and his son a short time ago. Neither of them had missed the fact Sonic was now engaged in his own fight.

"We need a plan!" Rift called, continuing to glance at the chest cavity of the mighty robot, which he and Ash were now circling.

"We need three of us... My Chaos powers can't pierce this thing, but I bet a combined homing attack can," Ash replied. His hand absently grazed another pocket of altered gravity, but this time it seemed like he warped and floated rather than sank. '_It can make gravity stronger or weaker...'_

"Watch it!" Rift called, slamming into Ash to get him out of the field's range. A split second behind them, the creature let a fist fly at them, slamming against his own metal with a sickening crunch. Disappointingly so, the robot seemed immune to his own blows.

"I got it!" Ash laughed. His face then turned grim. "We got just one shot. We need to hit the door to the ride so we blow it open..."

"Wait...with what?" Rift quirked a brow, his emerald eyes shining in contrast to the glitter of Ash's red orbs.

Ash sped toward the ground without another word, Rift following on his heels just to avoid the reeling ride. Once they were near the ground, he tore through some crates of carnival goods. He inspected the basket balls he'd just freed and sent them flying into the air one by one.

"What are you, _nuts_?" Rift queried as the bot was looking for his little playmates.

"Nope! Look!" Ash smirked. The second the balls had impacted antigravity fields, they stuck in place, half in and half out of the lighter spheres of space, while the ones that impacted high gravity wells were sent rocketing to the ground. Shadow's young blue son smiled and plucked a jagged metal brace from one of the crates he'd destroyed.

"Platforms..." Rift nodded and grabbed a metal spike from one of the tents. "So we use those to reach a high well, and send these courtesy of count Dracula into his heart?"

"That's the plan," Ash responded with a nod. "Only touch the ball, though, don't get trapped in the field...this is gonna be tricky."

* * *

Ayame's rose red eyes took in the landscape before them. It had changed drastically from just a short while ago. The drizzle of rain, the dark clouds, the abandoned thruways...it was all so different. Papers, dropped carnival prizes, drink cups, anything and everything littered the path on both sides. It was a far cry from the sunshine and laughter that had greeted her on the monorail platform.

Something else had changed with the darkened landscape: Ayame herself. She was aware of everything around her, her ears straining for even the slightest creaking of metal. Shadow had trained her well, and she could _feel_ that there was an emerald nearby, even though she couldn't see it. It gave license to her powers, though so far, she hadn't removed a single limiter. She was focused, unafraid; there was no part of her mother's humor residing in her at the moment, not until she fulfilled her task.

Eggman admired their juvenile bodyguard, though he looked disapprovingly at his "son" as they made their way toward the China Egg.

"What?!" Junior responded after they'd been quiet a while. Only the robotic footsteps and the rain had made a noise, though all were on edge.

"How is it you manage to usurp my entire establishment and _not_ have a single weapon to your name? You're being guarded by a _**little girl!**_"

"Uhh, Eggman-Sama..." Decoe put in.

"Hey! Not like I expected the whole thing to get _stolen!_ And I do have weapons!" Junior retorted.

"Really now? Like that cute little chao you're toting?" Eggman's voice was thick with sarcasm.

"Hey! He's not mine!" Junior scowled, sticking his tongue out at his old man defiantly.

"Umm..." Bocoe added.

Both turned to the bots sharply. "**WHAT?!**"

"Umm...we thought it ummm...pertinent...that's the word...right, Bocoe?" Decoe started.

"...Right well...ummm..."

"**Get on with it!**" Eggman hissed.

"Well, you really shouldn't insult the..._little girl_ who's protecting us, should you…I mean...considering she's in earshot?" Decoe finished.

Both geniuses turned and looked at Ayame, who was scowling at the both of them. "What was that about a little girl?" Ayame's tone was entirely too sugary considering the situation. Out of the corner of her eye she was well aware of several old school Robotnik toys heading for them--buzz bombers, catakillers, motobugs...they were all part of the Retro Eggshibit. They were also very mad it seemed.

"Nothing!" Junior put in. "Ayame...please! We really do need you...Dad's just being an idiot for not realizing how...how important you are!" He hoped his eyes appeared sincere enough, because those bots looked vicious enough.

Eggman began firing on his recreated robots one by one, but now regretting that he'd made a small army's worth for the exhibit. "Junior, you traitor!"

Ayame glanced at the older Eggman, then Junior, trying to decide what to do.

"I can shut them all down if we just get to the Master Controls...come on...even if you don't like us after this, it's the only way...will ya help, Ame?" Junior pleaded. Babbit sat contently in the bag at his side, cuddled up with the Silver plush and not seeming to care one way or another.

"Dad doesn't have many kind things to say about you, Eggman..." she began, though she was looking straight at Junior. "Hey, Oomochao! Come here a minute!"

"...What are you going to--?" Junior quizzed.

"Save you. Not him," she replied. Stuffing Oomochao into the bag with Junior and taking hold of him, she tested the ground and bolted.

"Damnit!" Eggman shouted after the pair had left. He hoped the Chaos drive in his cane gun wouldn't give out, but it was already taking time to recharge as it was. "New plan, boys...survival."

"We're doomed!" Decoe and Bocoe moaned.

Overhead, the abandoned Bokkun wilted at the thought of being left behind, but he certainly couldn't keep up with Shadow's kid. He took out one of his bombs and shrugged. "Look out below!" he cackled and started pelting the oldies with his signature weapon.

* * *

A metal crunch set in as a heavy metal rod, the third attempt the boys had made at hitting Gravitronik's access door, flew in and struck itself into the ride's controlling robot. The sudden rush of air was exhilarating, and Blitz felt breath returning to his lungs. A lavender form appeared in the opening created by what used to be a tent post, a true smile forming on both brothers' faces.

"Awesome! I can move again," Blitz cried; though the ride bot was still in motion, the gravity didn't seem nearly as overwhelming.

"Yeah, and we need to move fast!" There was a creak of metal buckling as the machine came to a stop in mid-stride. It swayed ominously, making Rift's point come across clearly. "... And get these people out of here!" the younger of the two purple hedgehogs exclaimed and grabbed a small feline and his parent before bolting.

"Always a hurry with us, huh?" Blitz smirked and grabbed a pair of squealing lemurs before exiting the machine. Ash then took his turn.

Below them, Metal Sonic and the real one were weaving between the large robot's legs. Metal 3 was taking out anything and everything Sonic could stand on, the exact opposite of what he'd done in their last battle. As a matter of advantages, Sonic was having a great deal of trouble with the slippery ground the park had turned into and every time he'd made a bolt for pavement, Metal found a way to cut him off. Standing on one of the broken down tent flaps proved hazardous as well, not from ropes he could get caught on, but the way Metal Sonic 3 tried to pull the carpeting out from under him.

"What's wrong, Sonic?" the doppelganger jeered at him as he flew past with his afterburners on high. He nearly shaved a few quills off his spiky blue head. "Years slowing you down?"

"As if!" Sonic retorted, though he was a bit desperate for some high ground. The only ground he was allowed on, though, was the Gravitronik. Even though it had stopped, it was going to fall over eventually, especially with the winds kicking up, and there was no way he wanted to be under it when it fell.

Metal made another pass, but this time Sonic had something up his sleeve, so to speak. Sonic jumped and slammed his foot into the tent, which caused a picnic table that was under it to bolt upright. With no time to react, Metal 3 slammed on through it, the metal frame causing him to veer off and skid a few feet away into the mud.

"Impressive...I thought you'd slow down," it called as it recovered itself. "But you won't be doing that again." Its eyes fixed on Sonic, and the Blue Blur bolted from the spot, the tent and what was beneath it quickly going up in flames. The rain was little more than drizzle now, and the metal umbrella that was Gravitronik meant the blaze would last.

_'Shit.'_ "Like a little time or mud could do anything to my speed? Ha!" Sonic bluffed. He could actually feel a strain on his legs before he sunk them into the earth again. _'High One I'm getting too old for this….'_

"Someone did...once." Metal cackled. it held out a clawed hand and made a crushing gesture.

Ash and Rift were busy getting the last of Gravitronik's passengers out while the fight ensued. Blitz stopped after making sure everyone was out. He could see Metal and Sonic hashing it around the blaze. The robot was a match for his dad's speed, but in terms of strength, he saw the metal claws rip through whatever they came across. He'd never seen his father work so hard at anything before...his legs blurred in what looked like an infinity loop. _'Never seen that one...'_ Sonic did get his share of blows in, but nothing seemed to phase the metal construct. For now, Blitz watched. _'Go Dad...'_

"You know what, Metal?!" Sonic said after a long silence. He ducked under metal discs the machination threw at him.

"What?" it responded.

"You're not even worth my time!" He laughed. "Man...you're not even trying."

"I have you on the run, I fail to see how that's not worth something," Metal 3 replied.

"Sorry, bud, just not feelin' it!" he replied whimsically, running a loop around Gravitronik's leg. As he hoped, Metal was still there when he got around and his shoe impacted the machination into the mud. "See...Metal Sonic actually _tried_ to fight me!"

"I am Metal Sonic," it replied and stood, facing the hedgehog. Expectedly, Sonic dodged away as he shot his metal hand off at the wrist, the sharp claws digging into the side of the halted robot; a chain still connected it to the arm, and he began to fly backward, off balancing it.

"Yeah, well, I refuse to acknowledge you. Metal was my rival...not you!" Sonic grinned. Now that he had his mind in the right place, he could fight to his heart's content. "You're just a fake built by a fake!"

"I don't care about that!" Metal hissed mechanically. '_Rival...I was...his rival...'_ Something stirred within the robot.

"Incoming!" a sharp, cocky tone called, taking advantage of Metal's moment of inner turmoil as a quilled bowling ball of death came down on the robot.

"Hey, Blitz! Glad you could-" Sonic started, but that ended quickly as his son came to an abrupt halt on Metal's cold, sharp talons.

"Gah..." Blitz coughed, the talons punctured through his chest at five points. "D-Dad...I just wanted...to help..." Confused and horrified tears crept into his eyes as he was held aloft by the sinister monstrosity.

Metal began to laugh, enjoying the slight escape of blood trailing down his metal arm. "I'm not Metal. Not the one you knew." An outrage, akin to Sonic's own, grew rebellious in his mind. '_What is this?'_ he thought, though his visage didn't change outwardly. _'Do not kill the boy... Sonic...Sonic's the one...fight him...not the boy... Fight...him…I will be his equal...no other...'_ The emerald embedded in Sonic 3 shimmered with power against the dark cavity it was caged in. It was speaking; _he_ was speaking. _'But I destroyed you...it's me he fights now,'_ Metal thought to himself, trying to savor the pain painted on both hedgehog's faces. _'I will win.'_


	13. Scars

The sides of the metal dragon's head bulged, and the creature scratched at it with its small forepaw until it let loose a cry of what was akin to pain for it before the monster's head exploded outward and it fell to the ground motionless. In its midst, Shadow gently floated down to earth as though defying gravity, his daughter still in his arms with two gold bands in her possession.

"Don't you think that was excessive?" Maria asked after a moment.

"Maybe." He walked away from the wreckage trying to figure out where to go from there. "...Haven't seen anyone in a while," he sighed. His ear tilted and twitched, picking up faint sounds in the distance; he couldn't quite make them out, but as long as it wasn't more robots, he was cool with that.

"Dad...? Can I walk now?" Maria asked impatiently.

"Yeah. Stay close." Shadow nodded and took off down the strip.

Maria was close at his side, and as they got closer, she could hear the calls of her mother and Yukiko, half in English and half in Japanese. "Tasukete!" Sara would call, while Yukiko would cry "Help! Someone!" and then the two would reverse and suddenly Yukiko would be saying "Tasukete onegai!" and Sara would be calling "Please! **Help!**"

The rotund robot was stomping around in triumph with his two captives, gloating. "No one can hear you!" it told them. "I want to fight! Come out come out! Someone rescue these two!" it called. The robot, after closer inspection, resembled a cat.

"I'm here. How about that fight?" Shadow said calmly and cracked his neck.

"Mom!" Maria smiled.

A large lumbering tail swayed from one side to the other as the cat looked at Shadow and the young hedgehog he'd arrived with. Having not been programmed with any information on Shadow, he sized him up purely on physique. It laughed, "Ha ha ha! Okay, I'll take your challenge!"

"Hanase!" Sara snorted at the robot. "Let go!"

It looked at its two hostages before making a decision. It set them into a glass dunk tank before turning back to Shadow. It started out in a low, off-key voice, after pulling a microphone from who-knows-where. "My name is Gaaat--OOOOOWW!"

Shadow easily ripped through it and smiled satisfactorily as it exploded behind him. _'Always aim for the power source.'_ He then shook his head and moved over to his prizes. "Miss me?" He attempted to pull the two out of the tank but was only half successful after Yukiko was out. Sara had decided to be clingy, and the two fell back into the water, his quills bristling at the cold.

"Baka...of course I did..." She sighed and held him tight, ignoring that their feet didn't quite touch bottom, which concerned him more than her. After a minute, they were both out and shaking dry. "Any idea what's going on?"

"Just Eggman." Shadow shrugged. "But something's off. He doesn't usually go this far."

"It's him," Maria spoke up suddenly.

"Him?" Shadow turned his head and blinked his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Maria's eyes had always been red, jewel like...but they almost seemed faceted like the red Chaos Emerald. It had been a long time since he'd seen this kind of thing, and even now it made his quills stand on end.

"Nega."

"Maria...?" Sara asked softly.

Shadow shook his head. "No. That's the emeralds talking...at least one of them," the dark hedgehog replied. "What's going on?"

"One life has sparked while another yet fades. If you free us, he will live. If you do not, we may all die," the possessed hedgehog said in a dispassionate voice.

Shadow grimaced. "Who? Why?"

Sara's ears pinned back as she observed her daughter become someone else entirely. _'I thought we were past all this... Shadow... has she been doing this and you didn't tell me?'_

"Daijoubu, Sara-chan. Daijoubu." The white hedgehog smiled toward Sara, her pink eyes twinkling. "Whatever you think, he's never hurt you, has he? Just trust him... trust them."

"Man...Rift got lucky...you seem to know what people think...feel..." The sky blue and brown hedgehog turned her gaze toward her eldest daughter once more, listening now as the emerald told its tale through her lips.

* * *

An outraged cry issued from Sonic, tears blurring his field of vision. He was tempted to dive for the body Metal carelessly cast aside but for another orchid hedgehog who darted in first.

"You...low...piece of shit CP-fuckin'-U!" Sonic snarled, his emerald lit eyes flickering dangerously. Every quill was an outstretched razor ready to slice. They'd never been so tense, not since the rings...Sonic could feel his blood boiling. "RRRRRrraaaHHH!"

Flesh and metal collided in a series of hits and kicks. Sonic didn't care about the pain; he ignored it. He was a berserker, spinning, scraping his quills against the metal frame before him. He didn't care what it took, even as the friction caused a burning sensation down his spines. '_He didn't care! That bastard robot didn't care! Didn't care...' _"BLITZ!" Sonic yelled, enraged.

_'I told you not to kill the boy...'_ the voice within metal sounded. "Hush," Metal said aloud.

Rift didn't need to say anything; Ash could see it in his eyes. He rolled up some tent cloth for a makeshift bed, which Blitz soon laid upon. "He..." Rift started but felt his throat close against tears.

"They're monsters..." Ash said in a hushed but very serious tone. He remembered his own fallout with a metal version of his dad. Not fun. "Come on, let's try to stop the bleeding at least."

* * *

"Ayame...?" Junior asked softly once they'd gone underneath the China Egg's Flying Chopsticks restaurant. That was where the entrance to his underground portion of the park was, and his tunnel was a gentle slope with metal-lined walls. The overhead lights were a creepy emerald glow that just radiated "Mad Scientist" and were accented with red lights on the doors.

"Yes?" she responded.

"...Why are you helping me?" he asked, his hand checking to make sure Babbit was still snug in the duffel bag. Oomochao was also there, though his light construction didn't add much to it.

"You said if you got to the controls it would help my family," her voice was placid, calm, oddly so.

"Yeah but...you didn't know I was really Eggman before...and now, well..." He readjusted the duffel bag on his shoulder.

Ayame's ear twitched lightly as they walked down the confining walkway. The good news about this kind of hall was that you knew what was ahead; unfortunately that meant trouble if what was at the other end was armed. "I don't know...actually...I think...it's cause you're my first real friend."

"W-what?" Junior blinked in amazement.

The young hedgehog nodded. "Yeah."

"What about the people you came here with?" young Eggman inquired. "There were two other hedgehogs...looked about your age."

"Family mostly," she said dismissively. "And those were my niece and nephew, Mille and Gray." Ahead of them, she saw a security camera and decided to take it out. A small needle of Chaos was all it took.

"R-really? So...you don't have any real friends?" His voice was honestly curious. All his life, he'd been surrounded by machines. He was the son and clone of an antisocial megalomaniac, so of course his social life was messed up.

"Just Babbit," she replied, and the little chao stuck its head out curiously. "I spent a few years on the Ark; there wasn't anyone my age there. Not unless Mille and Gray visited. that's why I can do this." She focused on four red locks sealing the door and four gold shots of energy spiraled from her fingertip. Upon impact, the locks were destroyed, and the chamber behind was revealed.

"Well well...took you long enough," Nega's voice droned. As usual, Nega's clothes were inverse to the original. His pure gray mustache was offset by a bumble bee gold and black tailcoat with red shirt and pants beneath. He was grinning widely, each one of his teeth accented in the sickly light.

"Nega..." Junior said darkly, approaching the chair. "It ends here and now!"

"Mmmhmm...indeed it does," Nega said, the smile continued on his face. As expected, a new door replaced the one Ayame had destroyed, this one with no discernible locking mechanism. "I have to thank you, boy; without you I couldn't have taken over the park, couldn't have secured the Chaos Emerald. Metal 3.3's giving Sonic such a run for his money...for his life even." Nega laughed. "Even better, I think he just killed one of his sons, isn't that grand?"

"No!" Ayame snapped instantly, and Nega pointed a cane of his own to one of the monitors. Her eyes began filling with tears; maybe she didn't have friends as such, but she had family….

Babbit and Oomochao decided to take that opportunity to leave the confines of the bag, Oomochao beginning to look for something while Babbit crawled over to his mother.

"Step down, Nega.. I'm closing the park!" Junior barked, suddenly feeling very inadequate to the more experienced double. He almost looked bored.

"I've already closed the park, and win or lose, this place goes down." His grin returned to its full glory. "You remember rigging this place with a...fail-safe?"

Junior's expression sank. The _self-destruct_. "...You triggered it."

"Yes. Go ahead, turn off all the robots you like, won't change the fact this place is going to be destroyed and well...there's no way out of here." Nega smiled with confidence.

_'Everyone in the park will….'_ Junior looked over at Ayame, whose face was fixed on the screen. He didn't know which of the hedgehogs was which, but one of them seemed to be dying. _'I always knew...that if Sonic ever died, I would miss the blue bastard….'_ Junior's thoughts were half his own, and half that Eggman had given him. "...Oomochao."

"Yes, Master?" the metal chao inquired eagerly.

"I want you to disarm the system. All of it. All but this room," Junior commanded.

"What foolishness is this?" Nega asked as he watched the chao fly over toward the main control panel.

"I'm blowing you up and saving everyone else," Junior replied firmly. "Enjoy being trapped down here alone."

"Impossible," Nega started, but frowned a little. Junior was the one who built the system, not him.

"Junior...?" Ayame finally looked over at him, her expression worried.

"Chaos Control...you can go some place if you can see it, right?" the boy replied encouragingly.

"Short range...but I don't think they're close enough..." The girl's frown worsened.

"Eggman isn't the only one with an emerald." The boy grinned widely.

"No!" Nega bolted upright for the first time since they'd entered the room. He turned his cane, a laser weapon much like Eggman's, onto the little chao robot who was busy interfacing with the computer network. He took careful aim, but the shot missed as a set of shark-like teeth sank into his leg, "GAH! Get it off!!" the mad scientist yelled and threw Babbit into the air, Junior quickly catching him on the way down. Ayame then reacted on instinct, intentionally curling her body into a tight ball and launching herself at full force, for the first time ever, at a flesh and blood being...the results of which were not pretty. "GAaahhhhhhrrrr...you...!"

"All of your robots are offline, Master. Self-destruct has been taken offline as well. Orders?" Oomochao beamed.

"We need your emerald...come here, Oomochao," Junior said softly, putting an arm consolingly around his only friend, Ayame.


	14. Chaos Control

With the rest of Nega's hijacked robots gone, silence swept over the mostly abandoned park. None of the heroes or their relations were ready to put down their arms just yet, but soon, a medley of ringtones sang out loud, telling the others who was where and that all was well...for the most part.

The only thing that had slipped from a dumbstruck Rift was that they were on what had been the EggLand Fairway. He didn't have the heart to say that his brother was dying, or that their father was still in the midst of battle.

Even as the phone conversation came to an end, the ends of Sonic's own quills glowed white-hot as he came off of a spin that had only succeeded in damaging Metal 3's paint job. The Blue Blur ignored the failure and launched himself at his adversary once more. As the air cooled his singed quills, the ends became blackened, yet somehow they remained sharp. There was nothing to strengthen him but his will, which was bent exclusively on Metal's destruction.

"Where do you get your strength? Why are you fighting? Don't you see you can't win?" Metal scoffed. Sonic's body would wear down; it had to. According to his own sensors, Sonic's body temperature was dangerously high, and only the damp atmosphere was likely to be what stood between him and a literal burnout. Yet every time he was knocked down, he would get right up. The wounds Metal had inflicted seemed superficial at best, the scratches hardly bleeding, but he should have torn himself asunder at this point by the sheer number of scrapes the blue one had taken.

Sonic gave a feral growl in reply. After he'd run out of curses and colorful slurs against his digital doppelganger, he was running on pure adrenaline. He didn't feel like talking to the murderer; he just wanted him dead. He charged the metal monster, kicking him one way, changing course abruptly and slamming him another. His movements would be hard to detect with the naked eye he moved so fast. It almost looked as though several Sonics were fighting in tandem.

Everything had been drawing to this moment...everything hinged on it. After all the abuse both had suffered, Sonic's body was screaming at him to stop now. His immaculate blue mane of quills was now half charred and bent. Steam hissed off him when the occasional raindrop would land on his heated spikes; it was good for him he couldn't feel more than the heat under the soft fur beneath the quills on his back. His legs could hardly support him, though he remained standing. His fists were numb, and even his ears didn't feel like standing, only managing to keep one aloft. Yet even through this, Sonic's emerald gaze was harsh and squarely placed on the robot. All that effort, and he'd put no more than a few dents and a scuffed paint job on him. "Damn, what's Egghead buildin' you out of now?" Sonic huffed, his breath ragged.

"Are you done?" Metal said at last, raising a hand toward the hedgehog, a red energy pulse gathering into his palm.

Sonic could feel the vibration of energy and recognized it for what it was. _'Chaos_.' A smile pierced the corners of his mouth as he stood there, out of breath. '_I guess speed won't save me this time.'_ "Hit me with your best shot!"

"Dad!" Rift cried in horror at that, the first reminder in a while that the hedgehog was not alone.

"Gladly!" Metal cackled and let loose a stream of Chaos energy, which seemed to hit the hedgehog dead on. At first, he didn't register anything amiss as the attack engulfed the blue form. Then, he _felt_ the feedback. The energy he'd let loose, he was no longer controlling. "W-w-what?!" _'Finally!'_ the imprisoned spirit called from the emerald as the power surge radiated through 3.0.

"...And stay down this time!" Sonic smirked as Metal was brought to its knees, his chest cavity open, showing off the glittering gem in his chest. Sonic fell to his knees too, no longer able to keep up his front. "Damn...robot..." A hollow laugh escaped him as he surrendered the fierce will that had, until now, kept him aloft.

Others were now arriving on the scene as the battle came to a close. Even Ayame and Junior appeared with a glittering blue Oomochao in her hands. Their entrance was marked by an explosion at the Flying Chopsticks. But the reunions were a mixed bag. Amy's relief over Sonic was abruptly turned to shock, a sentiment mirrored by her son's mate Lara-Su. Instead of cheering, there was silence, and lots of that.

"We're too late, aren't we?" Shadow asked softly. After all the things he'd lost, he realized that Sonic was the one who'd been hurt in the last major battles. For a time, he'd lost his speed, Rift still didn't have good hearing even after two surgeries, and now his other son Blitz... "Maria? Can you...?"

"I can try..." Shadow's eldest replied and walked over to the inner circle of hedgehogs. She could see a look of pain etched on Blitz' face as she knelt by him.

"You really think you can...?" Amy asked between sobs.

Maria pinched the gold limiter that usually rested around her neck and gave a small tug to it. The band shone brightly for a moment and released. "I don't know, but I'll try."

"W...wait!" Junior spoke up, earning glares from the others.

"Who the hell are you!?" Sonic growled, noting the resemblance between him and the mad scientist.

"He's my friend!" Ayame scowled. "He turned off all the bad robots, okay?! Sure, he's Eggman's son, but he's not bad!" Sonic flinched at her fierce defense of the human, but none of them were quite willing to trust him.

'_I know this is all my fault...' _Junior lowered his head but turned to Ayame and Oomochao. "It'll help if you have an emerald, right? Oomochao? I'll put you back together after this, okay?"

"Okay," the robot replied in compliance with his master.

Maria took the offered gemstone and closed her eyes, letting her power merge with the emerald. At first, it looked like it would work, the wounds beginning to seal and the blood drying on the hedgehog's fur. The pain remained on his face a while until he gave a kind of grunt, a failed effort, and stopped moving. "I'm sorry...I'm not strong enough..."

"No!" Ayame piped up her objections first, to everyone's' surprise. "No! You have to, Sis! We couldn't help Grandpa, now we can't help cousin Blitz?!"

Like a heartbeat, the red emerald began pulsing in time with the pale blue one now in Maria's hands. "It's not enough..." Metal Sonic said in a much changed tone. Though it was still lower than Sonic's register, it didn't carry the malicious edge to it. "...Power isn't enough."

Sonic turned to the machine in disbelief. "No way...why the hell won't you die!?" He snorted angrily, wishing his body would obey him.

"Relax. I can't fight you now, can I?" Metal said with something like a laugh. "I can't call myself your equal if I beat you like that."

"You're..." Sonic began.

"The real Metal Sonic." His clawed metal hand passed the glowing red emerald embedded in his chest. "I guess I'm harder to kill than I thought."

Shadow looked at Maria, whose eyes remained her own for the time being. Still, he had a feeling she knew what was going on.

"Ayame...you'll help me, won't you?" Maria asked of her grieving sister. The black, red, and white hedgehog nodded. She smiled a bit, then turned back to Metal. "Well, I think it's time for you to go, Metal Sonic."

"Wait up..." Sonic paused, his mind reeling from things. He _had_ been fighting Metal a minute ago, and now Metal was key in _helping_ his son? "My head hurts..." he groaned. Looking at the banged up Metal Sonic, he felt no anger; it wasn't the same one he'd been fighting. It was...his rival. "What are you?"

Metal came to a stop by the dead hedgehog's side and then looked over at the blue one. "I'm an extension of your soul. That's why...if I disappear, he can come back... You can't just call a soul back with two emeralds..." He put a hand on Ayame's head, and Shadow's quills bristled at that. "Go ahead, take the emerald, take my spark...and give it to him."

Ayame's hands closed around the red Chaos Emerald, feeling the warm pulse of energy through it. One by one, her limiters fell away, and she felt absolutely weightless. Her sister's voice guided her, though she barely heard what was said. All she could think of was the feeling, the white light, the warm energy. She wasn't sure if it was the emerald or if it was the spark Metal spoke of, but nothing was as comforting as the first heartbeat she felt as life returned to Blitz' body.

Now, there was a reason to cheer.

* * *

Several months had passed since Eggman Land went under, but it was far from the end for the Doctor or his son. Since Nega had been at fault (with Junior's part of things downplayed greatly), the old man's reputation hadn't acquired a new layer of tarnish. There was also a pretty hefty insurance policy on the park, so he was far from pinched financially.

Days were growing shorter and shadows were growing longer as Ayame walked along a stone fence outlining one of the upper-class residents in Knothole City. She was shadowed by Babbit in the crisp autumn evening, neither seeming to have a care in the world.

Just as Grandpa Charles had once told his daughter she should explore Earth a while, Ayame was encouraged to do likewise with Mobius. Still, it was getting late, and she was getting hungry. There was one place on Mobius, as there was one place on Earth, where she could always depend on a good meal. On Earth, it had been Vinnie's Pizza, but here...here it was Chuck's Chili.

The chime to the diner sounded as the young ebony hedgehog entered the establishment. As had become typical, her older brother Ash was in charge of the grill. It wasn't that he couldn't make a living elsewhere, but he'd inherited the place, and Chuck's secret recipe. Uncle Sonic was still trying to weasel it out of him.

"Hi, Sis! Two doggies with the works?" the black striped blue hedgehog greeted warmly.

"Yeah. But no onions...and extra cheese!" Ayame said with a soft smile.

"Comin' up." He nodded and began preparing the food for her. Chuck's Chili was actually a chain of restaurants now, spread through parts of Mobius and Earth, but the main storefront remained steadfast in its roots at Knothole. Ash's main talent was in organizing things and people, so he kept the restaurants he'd inherited running like a well-oiled machine. While the two were catching up on things, the bell chimed again. "Hey, Kiddo!"

"It's Julian, you jerk!" a young redheaded human snorted indignantly as a blackish robot flew overhead, followed by a second resembling a chao.

Ayame twisted in her seat and locked gazes with the brown-eyed youth. "Junior!?" she called out in surprise.

"A-Ayame!?" Junior replied in equal shock, pulling his small black frames further toward the tip of his nose, questioning his eyes.

"It is you!" She laughed. "But...what's with the 'Julian' thing, and why are you here?"

Junior was wearing an outfit similar to the one she'd seen him wear the last time they met, only this one was an aquamarine with white pants. It looked very regal, and what caught her eye about it most was the Acorn Crest clipped to the left side of his jacket. There was a spring in his step that wasn't as arrogant as it had been before, but was still light and airy. Eventually the lad made his way over to the row of stools before the counter and sat down next to his friend.

"Julian Kintobor, old family name," Junior explained. "Eggman used the name once, so I thought I would."

"What's with your clothes, though?" she asked again and poked the button on his chest.

He scratched the back of his head and grinned widely. "Well, I've been accepted into the Royal Academy's science branch. Professor Rotor's my teacher right now; he just stepped down as head of the Royal Science Council recently."

"Oh wow…." Ayame responded, then thought about it a minute. "Umm...they think that's wise? I mean...they know you're..."

"Of course they know who he is," Ash said, cutting into the conversation. "They also have Sonic and Shadow vouching for him, and you know Unc' at least has some pull with the royals. Oh yeah, he's also a pretty good customer. I won't let him have more than two dogs, tho', don't want him blimping out like his dad!" Ash snickered at the last part, getting a mock glare from the boy.

"And the real Eggman?" Ayame inquired curiously. She smiled over at the tiled floor where Oomochao and Babbit had decided to play.

"..Actually, he has a job on the Ark now. Chris Thorndyke's employing him," the young human said with a smile.

"Looks like a happy ending for everyone," Ayame chuckled, brushing her cottony bangs to one side.

"Sort of..." Young Julian said hesitantly. "I was wondering about...that purple hedgehog you saved?"

"That was Blitz."

Julian nodded. "What happened to him?"

"Oh...man…you haven't heard?" Ash cut in, his face unreadable and tone wavering. "He was in today's paper! I can't believe you guys don't know…."

"W-what about Blitz?" Ayame started nervously.

"Come on! Spit it out!" the young scientist snorted.

"He heh! Take a good look!" Ash said, pointing to a rack of periodicals by the door. The headline read very clearly "New Guardian Born to Blitz and Lara-Su."

Both of the friends had a good laugh at that before turning back to their food. They didn't even mind having to wait since Ash burned the dogs while he was distracted. The unlikely pair fell into easy conversation covering a wide range of topics, with Ash inserting his own colorful opinion at various points.

It was late enough that the stars were out when the pair finally said their goodbyes. "See ya around?"

"It's a promise," Julian replied warmly. "Oh, and I have a project I'd like you to see sometime."

"Ah?" Ayame inquired.

"Yeah. I'm trying to rebuild Metal Sonic...only not make him 'such a prick' this time." The boy laughed.

"What? Oh man, don't let Sonic know! He's had enough trouble with that thing!" Ayame gasped.

"Oh he knows." Young Eggman nodded. "Said he'd kick his ass if he caused any trouble. I'm counting on it." the youth beamed.

"Good luck with that I guess! I heard that one was unique." She laughed. "Ahh well... Take care!"

"Ciao!" Junior replied, giving her an overzealous salute before turning to the castle.

"Sayonara...my friend." Her ear twitched lightly as the door to the diner opened. While she expected to see her brother there, another hedgehog was in his place. She couldn't make out his real fur tone in the starlight, but she could see his glittering gold eyes and odd plumes of quills.

"Hi there," the boy started, soft spoken and giving off a friendly air.

"Hi…." Ayame replied shyly.

"I'm Aurum," the youth replied and offered a hand. "Can I walk you home?"

"Oh...sure." Ayame responded, her cheeks pink with blush. Maybe she was just in a good mood from seeing an old friend, but it was far from the last one she'd ever have. Maybe this was a new one? ...Maybe.

**--The End.**


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